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JOSIAH HENSON.
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JCTSIAH:
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THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
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BY- HENRY BLEBY,
al'thor op death struggles of slavery j scenes in the
caribbean; the reign of terror; romance withou?
fiction; the stolen children; apostles and*'
apostles; jehovah's decree of predestination, etcT7
ETC.
LONDON: -*■>
YAN CONFERENCE OFFICE^ ^
i, CASTLl^T., CITY^AD;
AND AT 66, PATERNOSTER-RO
1873.
LONDON I
PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS,.
46, EOSTON SQUARE.
JO SI AH
THE MAIMED FUGITIVE,
Chapter i.
THE AUTHOR'S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE
SUBJECT OF THIS SKETCH.
** oston, in the State of
» Massachusetts, is, in a
10
.^literary sense, the
* Athens of the United
States of America, and
%&m
-v% *•/
a city of historical importance ; for
there commenced that series of
events which produced the revolu-
tion of 1768, and gave birth to one of
the greatest and most powerful
nations in the world.
Having assisted in the Sabbath services on the
preceding day, I was invited by one of the minis-
ters of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city
to accompany him, on Monday forenoon, to the
B
2 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
" Preachers' Meeting." This I found to be a
weekly gathering of the ministers of the denomi-
nation resident in the city and its vicinity,
originally convened for conversation on Church
matters ; but in course of time it had swept into
a broader range, and took up the discussion of all
subjects of thought in theology and ethics.
It was a beautiful morning in the July of 1858.
Having accepted the courteous invitation, I accom-
panied my friend, at the appointed hour, to the
Methodist book-store in Cornhill. Passing through
the well-stocked store, after being presented to the
gentleman in charge of the " Concern," we as-
cended a narrow, winding, iron staircase, which
conducted us to a room of not very large dimen-
sions, where I found assembled not less than forty
or fifty gentlemen of various ages, just rising from
their knees after the preliminary devotional exer-
cises. A venerable-looking gentleman in clerical
black and white cravat occupied the presidential
chair, to whom, addressing him as " Father Merrill,"
my friend presented me as a missionary from the
West Indies, in connexion with the British Con-
ference. Extending to me a courteous welcome,
Father Merrill invited me to take a seat near
himself, observing that when the proper time
arrived he would have the pleasure of introducing
me to the meeting.
CHAPTER I. 3
Taking the seat allotted to me, I listened with
interest to u the order of the day," which I found to
be a discussion on " the identity of the resurrection
foody." This was carried on with much animation,
the rules of debate being strictly observed. While
the argument was proceeding, I looked around upon
the group of persons assembled, all of whom seemed
to be profoundly interested in the discussion. The
place I occupied was favourable to observation. I
could see every person in the room, several of
whom attracted my particular attention. Near to
me, and taking a leading and able part in the
debate, was a fine, muscular-looking man, in the
full vigour of early manhood ; whom, from his dress,
I should not, had I met him elsewhere, have taken
to be a clergyman, as he was clothed in an entire
suit of light grey tweed, with a black neck-tie.
This was, as I afterwards learned, the Rev. Gilbert
Haven, then in charge of one of the suburban
churches, and afterwards to become the able editor
of " Sion's Herald," the leading Methodist paper of
New England ; and, ultimately, one of the bishops
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Near to him,
and occasionally interposing some caustic or
humorous observation, was a man far advanced in
life, whose large, lively, expressive countenance,
full of deep furrows, seemed to mark him out as no
ordinary man. And, indeed, he was not an ordinary
B 2
4 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
man; but one who possessed the true nobility
of genius, and stood out prominently among the
celebrities of the age in which he lived. I knew
him not by name, as I listened to the striking and
beautiful words that occasionally dropped from his
lips, and admired the brilliant light that flashed
from his eyes, while his glasses were pushed up
upon the broad and wrinkled brow. But afterwards
I was introduced to him as " Father Taylor," the
seamen's apostle, and the pastor of the Sailors*
Home in Boston ; a man of whom Harriet Mar*
tineau, J. Silk Buckingham, Charles Dickens, Miss
Bremer, John Ross Dix, Miss Sedgwick, and Mrs.
Jameson, have all written in terms of glowing
eulogy, as an original genius, and one of the most
celebrated of American preachers. All classes
flocked to the humble seamen's church, where
Father Taylor's eccentric eloquence and wit
delighted, amused, and thrilled the multitude, and
the preaching became, on a large scale, the power
of God unto salvation to the blue jackets, who, in
every port in the world, heard of the sailor preacher,
and bent their footsteps to the Mariners' Church
whenever they found themselves in the Boston
harbour.*
* In " The Liberal Christian," the Rev. Dr. Bellows-
sketched the following portrait :— " Thirty years ago there
was no pulpit in Boston around which the lovers of genius
CHAPTER I. 5
At the end of the room, most distant from where
I was sitting, there was another individual who at
and eloquence gathered so often, or from such different
quarters, as that in the Bethel at the remote North End, where
Father Taylor preached. A square, firm-knit man, below the
middle height, with sailor written in every look and motion;
his face weather-beaten with outward and inward storms ;
pale, intense, nervous, with the most extraordinary dramatic
play of features; eyes on fire, often quenched in tears; mouth
contending between laughter and sobs ; brow wrinkled, and
working like a flapping foresail — he gave forth those wholly
exceptional utterances, half prose and half poetry, in which
sense and rhapsody, piety and wit, imagination and humour,
shrewdness and passion, were blended in something never
heard before, and certain never to be heard again. It is
difficult to say how far the charm of his speech was due to his
uneducated diction and a method that drew nothing from the
schools. He broke in upon the prim propriety of an ethical
era, and a formal style of preaching, with a passionate fervour
that gave wholly new sensations to a generation that had
successfully expelled all strong emotions from public speech.
He roared like a lion, and cooed like a dove, and scolded and
caressed, and brought forth laughter and tears. In truth, he
was a dramatic genius, and equally great in the conception
and the personation of his parts. With much original force
of understanding, increased by contact with the rough world
in many countries, he possessed an imagination which was
almost Shakespearian in its vigour and flash. It quickened
all the raw material of his mind into living things. His ideas
came forth with hands and feet, and took hold of the earth
and the heavens. He had a heart as tender as his mind was
JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
once attracted my attention, and whose presence
in such an assembly awakened in me a feeling of
surprise and curiosity. I knew how strong was
the prejudice concerning colour in the Northern
Free States, and that even in Methodist churches,
there was to be found the Negro pew in some corner
of the gallery, to keep the despised ones entirely
apart from their fellow worshippers. But there, in
that grave assembly of divines, to my great surprise,
1 saw an unmistakable scion of the Negro race ;
strong, and his imagination Protean ; and this gave such a
sympathetic quality to his voice and his whole manner, that,
more than any speaker of power we ever knew, he was the
master of pathos. Who can forget how rough sailors, and
beautiful and cultivated Boston girls, and men like Webster
and Emerson, and shop-boys and Cambridge students, and
Jenny Lind and Miss Bremer and Harriet Martineau, and
everybody of taste or curiosity who visited Boston, were seen
weeping together with Father Taylor, himself almost afloat
again in his own tears, as he described some tender incident in
the forecastle, some sailor's death-bed, some recent shipwreck,
or sent his life-boat to the rescue of some drowning soul*
Unique, a man of genius, a great nature, a whole soul,,
wonderful in conversation, tremendous in off-hand speeches,,
greatest of all in the pulpit, he was, perhaps, the most original
preacher, and one of the most effective pulpit and platform
orators America has produced. And, alas ! nothing remains
of him but his memory and his influence. He will be an
incredible myth in another generation. Let us who knew him
well keep his true image before us as long as we can."
CHAPTER I. 7
taking no part in the discussion, it is true, but
manifestly regarded by those who sat near him as
" a man and a brother." He exhibited a person of
the middle size, firm and well knit ; his skin was of
the true African jet ; and clothed in a new glossy
suit of clerical broad cloth, he was all over black,
except the spotless cravat and a set of pearly
white teeth, that might have been made of the
finest ivory Africa can produce, so brightly did they
glitter, when some flash of oratory in the debate, or
some sally of Father Taylor's sparkling wit, caused
the broad African features to expand into a smile, or
provoked a hearty laugh. And this was very often
the case. Again and again, as I sat and looked
upon him, did laughter spread itself over all the
lines of his countenance, and tell of a rollicking,
fun-loving spirit, that could not often, or for long
together, be clouded with gloom.
After I had addressed the meeting at the invita-
tion of the chairman, and replied to many questions
concerning the results of emancipation in the West
Indies, — the slavery question beingthe all-absorbing
topic of the day, I was introduced to Mr. Haven,
Father Taylor, Dr. Whedon, who like myself was a
visitor, and many others ; among them the coloured
gentleman whom I had regarded with such lively
curiosity. " This," said Mr. Merrill, " is Father
Henson, the original of Mrs. Stowe's famous Uncle
8 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Tom. He was a slave in the Southern States, but
escaped to Canada ; where he has founded a large
settlement of fugitives, and lives among them as a
patriarch and a preacher of the Gospel." On look-
ing at him more closely as he stood before me,
holding a glossy white beaver hat in one hand,
while he extended to me the other in friendly saluta-
tion, I observed that both his arms were crippled,
so that he could by no means use them freely.
11 Our friend Henson, you see," remarked Mr,
Haven, " has had his share of suffering, and
slavery has left its mark upon him." The injury
referred to, as I afterwards learned from himself,
had been inflicted by the cruelty of an overseer in
the slave land, from which he had happily made his
escape. Such was my first introduction to Josiah
Henson, the maimed fugitive slave preacher. A
few evenings later I met him by invitation at the
house of a friend ; and frequently afterwards I was
favoured with his company in walking home to my
lodgings, after I had addressed congregations in
the city churches on the emancipation of the slaves
in the British colonies, — a subject in which he felt
and manifested a deep and lively interest. Wher-
ever I spoke on this subject, in or near the city, I
was sure to see the dark, bright countenance of
" Father Henson " upturned in the congregation;
and he often waited at the door to join me in my
CHAPTER I. 9
homeward walk. On these occasions, in answer to
my inquiries, he entered in his own lively and
animated style into details of his past history;
which I found to be interspersed with scenes and
adventures more thrilling than those which are
pictured in the pages of many a novel. Kindly
assisted by Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe, he had written
and published a history of his life, and of the
numerous journeys he had made into the slave
land, after his own escape from slavery, for the
purpose of assisting others to gain their liberty. A
copy of this publication I obtained from himself.
I was so much interested in my sable friend that I
made notes of the conversations I had with him
from time to time. From the materials thus
obtained I have been enabled to sketch the follow-
ing narrative ; marking, as I proceed, the vicissitudes
of a somewhat extraordinary career, not likely to be
repeated in actual life, now that American slavery,
with its sanginuary oppressions, the underground
railway with its mysteries, and the daring adventures
of fugitives to escape to a free land, are numbered
with the things of the past.
Chapter ii.
BORN TO AN INHERITANCE OF EVIL AND SUFFERING.
ow fearfully blinded
by prejudice and in-
terest must those min-
isters of the Gospel
have been, who
once stood boldly forth to advo-
cate the Divine right of the slave-
holder ! A more fearful wrong
could not be done to human beings
than that which was inflicted upon
the millions who were born to an
inheritance of slavery in the Southern States of the
American Union. Brought into the world by a
slave mother, the poor slave child, before he could
possibly be guilty of any offence to incur such a
penalty, — before he could inhale the vital air, — was
plundered of all the rights of humanity and doomed
to be a chattel, — doomed body and soul to be the
property of another ; deprived of the right to dispose
of his own time, to enjoy the fruit of his own labour,
to have his own wife, and to dispose of and con-
CHAPTER II. It
trol his own children ! Such was the patrimony
of the subject of this sketch.
He was born in June, 1789, in Charles County ,,
State of Maryland, on a farm belonging to a Mr.
Francis Newman, situated about a mile from Port
Tobacco. His mother was hired out to work on
this farm, being the slave of a Dr. Josiah M'Pher-
son, and here it was that she met with and was
married to the father of Josiah. The slave in
America, as elsewhere, followed the fortunes of the
mother, and Josiah's mother being the property of
M'Pherson, her child likewise became his slave
M'Pherson was one of a class by no means uncom-
mon amongst slaveholders. A man of good
generous impulses, liberal, jovial, and hearty, he
was far more kind to his slaves than the planters
generally were, never suffering them to be punished
or struck by any one. No degree of arbitrary
power could ever lead him to forget, like others,
the claims of humanity, and exercise cruelty
towards his dependents. As the first Negro child
ever born to him, Josiah became his pet. He gave
him his own Christian name, and added to it the
name of Henson, after an uncle of his, whose
memory he revered, and who was an officer in the
Revolutionary war.
Josiah knew very little concerning his father ;
and that little was of a tragical character, forming
12 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
an episode in his own history that remained, all
through life, a dark spot upon his memory. This,
he observed, was the only incident concerning his
mother's husband which, in after years, he could
call to mind. One day his father appeared among
his fellow slaves with his head all bloody, his back
fearfully lacerated, and almost beside himself with
mingled rage and suffering. Child as he was, no
explanation was given to Josiah concerning the
cruel punishment to which his father had been sub-
jected ; but, shrewd and intelligent beyond his
years, he picked up from the conversation of others
an outline of the facts, which made an indelible
impression upon his memory, and as he grew older
he clearly understood it all.
While he was at work in the field, Josiah's father
heard screams arising from a retired spot near
at hand, which he recognised as coming from his
own wife. He threw down his hoe, and hastened to
the place whence the screams proceeded. Mad-
dened by a brutal outrage which had been inflicted
upon his wife by the overseer, an outrage common
-enough in the slave land, he flew like a tiger upon
the aggressor.
He was a man of great muscular power, and in
the full vigour of his manhood. The cowardly,
trembling overseer had no chance with his assail-
ant. In a moment he was down, and there and
CHAPTER II. IJ,
then his wicked life would have been brought to a
sudden end by the furious husband, had not the
wife interposed to prevent such a catastrophe. The
humbled caitiff was allowed to rise and depart, pro-
mising, in the most abject manner, that nothing*
more should ever be said concerningthe punishment
he had justly received. The promise was kept —
like most promises of the cowardly and debased—
only as long as the danger lasted.
The laws of the slave states provided ample
means and opportunities for ruffianly revenge to
such aggressors as this overseer. " A nigger had
struck a white man !" That was enough to set a
whole county on fire. No question was asked about
the provocation : that was a matter of indifference.
The fact, that the hand of a Negro had been raised
against the sacred person of a white man, was a
crime so terrible in the eyes of slaveholders that
nothing could possibly excuse it, no provocation
whatsoever could justify it. The authorities were
speedily in pursuit of the daring offender, and he
must be brought to condign punishment. For
awhile he kept out of the way, hiding in the woods,,
venturing only at night into some cabin in search
of food. But this could not continue long. A
watch so strict was set that all supplies were cut
off, and, starved out, he was compelled at length
to surrender, and give himself up to the tender
mercies of his foes.
74 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
The penalty pronounced for this offence, of
defending his wife from outrage, was a hundred
lashes on the bare back, and to have the right
-ear nailed to the whipping post, and then severed
from the head. This reminds us of the days
-when Englishmen groaned under the rule of the
Stuarts, and, for trivial offences against the majesty
-of feudal tyrants, were subjected to similar treat-
ment, — mutilation, and the pillory. The day for the
execution of the sentence arrived. From all the sur-
rounding plantations the Negroes were summoned,
for their moral improvement, to witness the edifying
scene ; and the planters from all around assembled to
revel in an enjoyment so congenial to their tastes.
A powerful blacksmith, named Hewes, whose
trawny arm, with its muscles fully developed by
years of toil, qualified him well for the task, laid
on the stripes. Fifty were given with all the
power of the inflicter, during which the sufferer's
cries might be heard a mile away ; and then a
pause ensued. True, he had struck a white man :
t>ut he is valuable property, and must not be so
damaged as to be disabled for work. Experienced
men feel his pulse. It is not, as yet, very much
lowered: he can stand the whole. Again and
again the cruel thong falls upon the lacerated,
gory back, the cries grow fainter and fainter, until
a feeble groan is the only response yielded to the
CHAPTER II. 15
final stripes. His head, now that the flogging is
over, is rudely thrust against the post to which he
is tied, and the right ear fastened to it with a nail.
A swift pass of a knife, and the bleeding mem-
ber is left sticking where it has been nailed. Then
comes a loud hurrah from the whites crowding
around, as one of them exclaims, " That's what
he got for striking a white man!" A few of the
spectators frowned upon the deed of blood, and
said, " It is a shame ! " But the majority approved
and applauded the whole proceeding as a proper
tribute to the white man's offended dignity. A
blow at one white man was looked upon as a blow
levelled at the whole community of slaveowners.
It was felt to be as the muttering and upheaving of
volcanic fires underlying and threatening to burst
forth and utterly consume the whole social fabric.
Chronic fear of insurrection was the condition in
which the whites lived ; and terror is the fiercest
nurse of cruelty, as was fearfully manifested in the
Jamaica panic of 1865, when so many lives were
sacrificed through the utterly groundless fright,
which rendered the local authorities incapable of
the exercise of anything like sound judgment and
discretion.
Previous to this occurrence, Josiah's father had
been one of the most light-hearted and good-
tempered men in the neighbourhood, and a ring-
l6 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
leader in all the fun and jollity that marked the
corn-huskings and the Christmas buffooneries of
the slaves. His banjo was often in requisition*
and he was the life of the farm ; often playing all
night at a merrymaking while the other Negroes
danced. But from the hour that he passed through
this cruel punishment he became utterly changed*
The milk of human kindness in his heart was
turned into gall. He brooded over his wrongs,
and became sullen, morose, and dogged. All the
elasticity of his nature seemed to have departed
utterly, and he became so intractable and ferocious
that nothing could be done with him. No fear or
threats of being sold to the far South — the greatest
of all terrors to the slaves in the border states —
could produce any effect upon him, or make him
the buoyant, tractable slave he had been before.
No amount of punishment could subdue or break
his spirit. So he was sent off to Alabama, and
Josiah saw his father never more. " What was
his after fate," said Josiah, " neither I nor my
mother have ever learned ; the great day will
reveal all." Thus husband and wife were parted,
and father and child were severed, to meet no more
until the great day, when the wrong-doer and his
victim shall stand before the righteous Judge of
quick and dead, and " every one shall give account
of himself to God."
CHAPTER II. 17
After the sale of this poor fellow to the South,
Rf 'Pherson, the owner of Josiah's mother, would
no longer hire out the injured wife to Newman ;
for he was amongst those who looked with abhor-
rence upon the cruelty that had been practised
towards the husband. She accordingly returned
to the farm of her owner, a widowed wife. Treated
with indulgence, and petted by his master, Josiah
felt little of the bitterness of slavery ; but one of
those changes was at hand, which often brought
a dark cloud over the condition and prospects of
kindly treated slaves, and sadly changed the whole
current of their existence. M'Pherson was not
exempt from that failing which too often besets
and ensnares persons of easy temper and disposi-
tion in a drinking, dissipated community. Although
he was esteemed as a man possessing much good-
ness of heart, kind and benevolent to all around
him, he could not restrain his convivial propensi-
ties. The fiend of intemperance laid his iron grasp
upon him, and he became utterly incapable of
resisting the habit that steadily grew upon and
enthralled him. This, as in a multitude of other
cases, brought him to a premature grave. Two of
the Negroes of the plantation found him one morn-
ing lying dead in a narrow stream of water, not a
foot in depth. He had been away from home on
the previous night at a drinking party, and when
c
l8 JOSIAH I THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
returning home had fallen from his horse. Too
much intoxicated to help himself out of the shallow
stream into which he fell, he had lain there and
perished. Josiah could well remember, though he
was but a child when the event occurred, the scene
of the accident, as pointed out to him in these
words, " That's the place where Massa got
drownded at."
Chapter iii.
VICISSITUDES OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
t is a blessing unspeak-
ably great in any con-
H| dition of life, to have a
4f pious mother ! How
\ largely does the destiny
of the child in most cases
depend on the mother ! And how
many owe all their success in life,
and all their hope of heaven, to the
loving counsels, care, and prayers
of godly mothers I Who does not
remember how all that was good and great in
Doddridge, and Curran, and the Wesleys, was at-
tributable, under God, to the influence shed upon
them in early life by their mothers ? In his lowly
and almost hopeless condition, Josiah was favoured
with this inestimable advantage — a pious, praying
mother, watching over and tending his infant and
childish days. How or where she acquired her
knowledge of God, and her acquaintance with the
c 2
20 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Lord's Prayer, josiah never knew : but, he said,
" She was a good mother to us, anxious above all
things to touch her children's hearts with a sense
of religion, and bring them up in the ways of the
Lord. She frequently taught us to repeat the
beautiful words of the Lord's Prayer, and I remem-
ber seeing her often on her knees in our little cabin
trying to express her thoughts and petitions in
prayers appropriate to her situation and wants.
They amounted to little more than constant fervent
ejaculations, and the repetition of short familiar
phrases ; but they were the utterances of a devout
and humble mind, offered up in all faith and sin-
cerity ; and doubtless had power to prevail with
God. They made a deep impression on my infant
mind, and have remained in my memory to this
hour."
The death of Dr. M'Pherson was a most painful
event to his friends, but it was a far greater
calamity to his unfortunate slaves. For two or
three years after her husband was sold and sent
South, Josiah's mother and her six children had
resided in comfort on her master's plantation ; and
they had been happy together. Now, alas ! their
term of happy union as one family must come to
an end. The death of the owner of slaves was
often the occasion of wide-spread grief and woe
amongst his dependents, causing as it did their
CHAPTER III. 21
sale and scattering; the dearest ties being reck-
lessly rent asunder, and families often broken up
and parted, never to see, or even hear of, each other
again. So it was to be with the family of which
Josiah was one of the child members. M'Pherson's
estate and slaves had to be sold, and the proceeds
divided among the heirs ; and they were regarded
only in the light of property, not as a tender mother
and the children which God had given her.
Common as slave auctions were in the Southern
States, and naturally as a slave might look forward
to the time when he would be put up on the block,
the full misery of the event, the anguish and
suffering which precede and follow the slave
-auction, could only be understood when the actual
experience came. The first sad announcement
that the sale was to be ; the knowledge that all ties
of the past were to be sundered ; the frantic terror
at the idea of being sent " down South ;" the almost
certainty that one member of the family would be
torn from another ; the anxious scanning of pur-
chasers' faces ; the agony of parting for ever with
husband, wife, child — these must be seen and felt to
be fully understood. " Young as I was then," said
Josiah, " the iron entered into my soul. The re-
membrance of the breaking up of M'Pherson's
estate is stamped in its minutest features upon my
mind. The crowd collected around the stand ; the
22 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
huddling group of terrified Negroes ; the examina-
tion of muscle, teeth, and limbs, and the exhibition
of agility ; the look of the auctioneer ; the agony
of my mother I I can never forget them ! I shut
my eyes, and I see them all."
Josiah was the youngest ; and^the elder children
were bid off first, one by one, while the mother,
paralysed with grief, held him by the hand. Her
turn came, and she was bought by a man named
Isaac Riley, of Montgomery county. Then little
Josiah was offered to the assembled purchasers.
The loving mother, half distracted with the thought
of parting for ever with all her children, pushed
through the crowd, while the bidding for Josiah was
going on, to the spot where Riley, her new owner,
was standing. She fell at his feet, and embraced
his knees, entreating him in tones which only a
mother could command, and with many tears, to
buy her " baby" as well as herself, and spare to her
one at least of her little ones. It can scarcely be
believed, yet it is true, that this man, thus appealed
to, not only turned a deaf ear to the agonized sup-
pliant, but disengaged himself from her with curses
and blows and kicks, and sent her creeping out of
his reach with the groan of bodily suffering min-
gling with the sob of a breaking heart. " I must
have been then/' said Josiah, " between five and
six years old. I seem to see and hear my poor
CHAPTER III. 23
weeping mother now. This was one of my earliest
observations of men, but an experience which I
only shared with thousands of my race, the bitter-
ness of which to any individual who suffers it
cannot be diminished by the frequency of its re-
currence ; while it is dark enough to overshadow
the whole after life with something blacker than a
funeral pall."
Josiah was bought by a stranger named Robb,
" and truly," he said, " a robber he was to me. He
took me to his home, about forty miles distant,
and put me into his Negro quarters, with about
forty or fifty others, of all ages, colours, and condi-
tions, and all strangers to me. Of course nobody
cared for me. The slaves were brutalized by their
degradation, and could feel no sympathy for the
suffering child thus torn from his mother, and thrust
in amongst them. I soon fell sick, and lay for some
days almost dead upon the ground. Sometimes
one of the slaves would give me a piece of corn
bread or a bit of herring, but I became so feeble
that I could not move. This, however, turned out
to be fortunate for me ; for in the course of a few
weeks Robb met with Riley, who had bought my
mother, and offered to sell me to him cheap. Riley
said he was afraid the little devil would die, and he
did not want to buy a dead nigger ! They finally
struck a bargain, Riley agreeing to pay a small sum
24 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
for me in horseshoeing, if I lived, and nothing if I
died, Robb was a tavern-keeper, the owner of a line
of stages, with the horses belonging to them, and
lived near Montgomery court house. Riley carried
on a blacksmith business about five miles from that
place. After this arrangement was agreed upon, I
was soon sent to my mother, and a blessed, grateful
change it was to me. I had been lying on a lot of
filthy rags thrown upon a dirt floor. All day long
I was left alone, crying sometimes for water, some-
times for mother, whose loving care I greatly
missed : for the other slaves, who went out to their
work at daybreak, gave no attention to me. It
mattered nothing to them whether I lived or died.
Now I was once more with my best friend on earth,
and tenderly cared for with all a mother's love,
intensified as it was by the cruel bereavement of
all her other children. She was destitute of all
means of ministering to my comfort ; but, never-
theless, she nursed me into health, and I became
vigorous and strong beyond most boys of the same
age."
The new master, Riley, into whose hands Josiah
fell when he returned to his mother's care, was
coarse and vulgar in his habits, profligate, unprin-
cipled, and cruel. He suffered the unfortunate
beings who were his slaves to have little oppor-
tunity of relaxation from wearying labour, supplying
CHAPTER III. 25
them scantily with necessary food, so that they
had often to endure the sharp pangs of hunger, and
acted fully on the principle that his slaves possessed
" no rights which he was bound to respect." The
natural tendency of slavery is to make the master
a tyrant, which the nobler dispositions of a few
enable them to overcome, and to convert the slaves
into the cringing, treacherous, false, and thieving
victims of oppression, which many of them became,
when not brought under the elevating influences of
religion. Riley and his slaves were apt illustrations
of this tendency of the system to degrade and
brutalize both the master and his dependents.
The earliest employments of the child-chattel,
Josiah, were to carry water to the slaves at their
work, and to hold a horse plough, used for weeding
between the rows of corn. As he grew older and
taller he was entrusted with the care of his master's
saddle horse, in which occupation he continued for
several years, enjoying many a stolen ride. But
while quite a stripling a hoe was put into his
hands, and he was required to do the work of a
man. " It was not long," said Josiah, "before I
could do it, at least as well as any of my associates
in misery."
The principal food of the slaves on Riley's plan-
tation consisted of a stinted allowance of corn-meal
and salt herrings. To this was added, 'in summer,
26 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
a little buttermilk and the few vegetables which
each might be able to raise on the little piece of
ground assigned to him, called a truck patch. In
ordinary times they had two meals a day : — break-
fast at twelve o'clock, after labouring from daybreak,
and supper at night, when the work of the day was
over. In harvest they had three meals, the hours
of toil being prolonged to the uttermost point of
endurance. Their dress was of tow cloth ; for the
children only a shirt : for the older ones a pair of
pantaloons, or a gown, in addition. A woollen hat
was given to each once in two or three years, and
once a year a coarse pair of shoes. In the winter
a jacket or oveicoat was added to their equipment.
On Riley's farm anything like comfortable cabins
for his slaves was out of the question. They were
lodged in log huts, on the bare ground, wooden
floors being an unknown luxury. All ideas of re-
finement or decency were disregarded. In a single
room were huddled like cattle ten or a dozen men,
women, and children. There were neither bedsteads
nor furniture of any description. The beds were
collections of old rags and straw, thrown down in
the corners, and boxed in with any old boards they
could find and appropriate to such a purpose, a
single blanket the only covering. The w T ind whistled,
and the rain and snow blew in through the cracks,
and the damp earth soaked in the moisture till the
CHAPTER III. 27
floor was miry as a pig-sty. In these wretched
hovels were the slaves penned at night and fed by
day; here were the children born, and the sick and
dying neglected.
Notwithstanding these discomforts and hardships,
Josiah, lovingly fostered by his mother, grew to be
a robust and vigorous boy, " lively as a young buck,"
as he described himself, " and running over with
animal spirits, ,, so that few could compete with him
in work or sport. He could run faster, wrestle
better, and jump higher than any about him. All
this caused his master and fellow slaves to look
upon him as a very smart fellow. His vanity was
inflamed, and he fully coincided in their opinion.
"Julius Caesar/' he said, "never aspired and
plotted for the imperial crown more ambitiously
than did I to out-hoe, out-reap, out-husk, out-dance,
out-everything, every competitor! and from all I
can learn he never enjoyed his triumphs half so
much. One word of commendation from the petty
despot who ruled over us would set me up for a
month. I have no desire to represent the life of
slavery as nothing but an experience of misery,
God be praised, that however hedged in by un-
favouring circumstances the joyful exuberance of
youth will bound at times over them all. Ours is
a light-hearted race. The sternest and most
covetous master cannot frighten or whip the fun
28 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
quite out of us ; certainly old Riley never did out
of me. In those days I had many a merry time ;
and would have had if I had lived with nothing but
mocassins and rattlesnakes in Okafenoke swamp.
Slavery did its best to make me wretched ; but
nature, or the blessed God of youth and joy, was
mightier than slavery. Along with the memories
of miry cabins, frostbitten feet, weary toil under the
blazing sun, curses and blows, there flock in others
of jolly Christmas times, dances before old massa's
door for the first drink of egg-nog, extra meat at
holiday times, midnight visits to apple-orchards,
broiling stray chickens, and first-rate tricks to dodge
work. The God who makes the lamb to gambol,
and the kitten play, and the bird sing, and the fish
leap, was the Author in me of many a light-hearted
hour. True it was, indeed, that the fun and frolic
of Christmas, at which time my master relaxed his
front, was generally followed by a reaction, under
which he drove and cursed worse than ever. Still
the fun and the frolic v/ere fixed facts. We had
enjoyed them, and he could not help it."
But the exuberance of animal spirits, which
characterized the slave boy, was not all expended
in useless, selfish frolic. Under the prayerful
training of that good slave mother, the thoughtless
lad had been taught to cherish a kindly sympathy
towards others who had less to make them happy,
CHAPTER III. 29
and more to make them wretched, than he had ;
and he was often led to exercise the spirit of
adventure in which he delighted to soothe and
lighten the sorrows of those around him. The
miseries which he saw many of the women suffer
often filled him with sorrow. Compelled to perform
unfit labour, sick, suffering, and bearing the peculiar
burdens of their own sex unpitied and unaided, as
well as the toils which belong to the other, his
enderest sympathies were often aroused in their
behalf. " No white knight, rescuing white fair
ones from cruel oppression, ever felt the throbbing
of a chivalrous heart more intensely than I, a black
slave boy, did, in running down a chicken in an
out-of-the-way place to hide till dark, and then
carry it to some poor, overworked, black fair one*
to whom it was at once food, luxury, and medicine.
No Scotch borderer, levying black mail, or sweeping
off a drove of cattle, ever felt more assured of the
justice of his act than I of mine, in driving a mile
or two into the woods a pig or a sheep, and
slaughtering it for the good of those whom Riley
was starving. I love and admire the sentiment
of chivalry, with the splendid environment of castles, ,
and tilts, and gallantry, in which poets and
romancers have set it forth. And this was all the
exercise of chivalry that my circumstances and
condition of life permitted, myself the dark-skinned.
30 josiah: the maimed fugitive,
paladin, Dinah or Patsy the outraged maiden, and
old Riley as the grim oppressor. However mis-
taken my views of rectitude may then have been,
these deeds of boyish adventure to relieve the
sufferers around me were my training in the luxury
of doing good, and sprang from a righteous indig-
nation against the cruel and the oppressive."
Chapter iv.
BECOMES THE SUBJECT OF A GREAT MORAL CHANGE,
he mind and heart of
Josiah, unconsciously to
himself, were influenced
largely by the beautiful
example, and the prayers
and counsels, of his pious
mother ; and doubtless
they thus received from her a
tendency in the right direction.
By his mother he was led to
think much of God. From her
he learnt that there was in him an undying soul,
and that to save him and all sinners God, the loving
Father, sent His own Son into the world to suffer
and to die. In that mother, ignorant and enslaved
as she was, he saw daily exemplified the beauty
and power of religion ; and he was, amid all
the frivolity which was natural to him in a
high degree, often led by her conversation to
think deeply concerning God and the things per-
taining to the soul and its destiny. He was thus
32 JOSIAH ! THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
prepared for an event that was to change and mould
the whole of his future existence, and bring the
grateful answer to his mother's unceasing prayers
on his behalf.
At Georgetown, a few miles from Riley's farm,
lived a white man whose name was John M'Kenny.
His ousiness was that of a baker; his character
that of an upright benevolent Christian, who lived
the religion that he professed. He was noted for his
detestation of slavery ; and he resolutely avoided
the employment of slave labour in his business.
He would not even hire a slave the price of whose
labour must be paid to the master, but carried on
his business with his own hands and such free
labour as he could procure; content with small
profits uncontaminated by wrong doing, rather
than the increase of wealth he might have com-
manded had he been less scrupulous and conscien-
tious. This singular abstinence from what no one
about him thought wrong, and the probity and ex-
cellence of his character, procured for him great
respect, and prepared the way for great usefulness
to his fellow man. M' Kenny often took upon him
the work of preaching the Gospel ; for at that period
ministers of Christ were rare in the neighbourhood,
and the inhabitants had few opportunities of hear-
ing the truth. Thus he was a great light in a dark
place, and many through his preaching were led to^
CHAPTER IV. 33
the sinner's Friend. Not a few crushed and heart-
broken slaves received through him those heavenly
consolations which were so well suited to their sor-
rowful condition, and welcome as the water-spring
in the desert land.
One Sabbath this good man was to preach at a
few miles' distance from Riley's plantation, and
Josiah's mother, anxious above all things for the
soul of her child, urged him to ask his master's
permission to go and hear him. He had often
been beaten for making such a request, and assigned
this as a reason for refusing to comply with his
mother's wishes. She told him, " You will never
be a true Christian if you are to be afraid of a beat-
ing," and persisted in urging him to make the
request, adding, " Like the good Massa, you must
take up the cross and bear it." To gratify her, and
dry up the tears which his refusal of her wishes
called forth, Josiah resolved to try the experiment,
and accordingly went and asked Riley's permission
to go to the meeting. Somewhat to his surprise,
the favour was accorded with less scolding and
cursing than he expected, but with a pretty distinct
intimation of the evil that would befall him if he
did not return immediately after the close of the
service.
" I hurried off," said Josiah, "pleased with the
opportunity of hearing a preaching, but without
34 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
any definite expectations of benefit or of the
amusement in which I most delighted ; for up to
this time, and I was then near eighteen years old,
I had never heard a sermon, nor any discourse or
conversation whatever upon religious topics, except
what I had heard from my mother, who carefully
taught me the responsibility of all to a Supreme
Being. When I arrived at the place of meeting,
the services were so far advanced that the speaker
was just beginning his discourse from the text,
Hebrews ii. 9: " That He, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man." This was the
first text of the Bible I had ever listened to, know-
ing it to be such. I have never forgotten it, and
scarcely a day has passed since in which I have
not recalled it, and the sermon that was preached
from it.
11 Who can describe my feelings, and the strange
influence that came upon and overwhelmed me, as
I listened to those wondrous words ? I was at
once attracted by the manner and earnestness of
the preacher, the loving expression of his coun-
tenance, and the light that seemed to gleam from
his eyes. And then I became entranced, my whole
soul absorbed in the theme upon which he dwelt.
He spoke of the Divine character of Jesus Christ,
His tender love for mankind, His forgiving spirit,
His compassion for the outcast and despised and
CHAPTER IV. 35
the guilty, His crucifixion and His glorious resur-
rection and ascension ; and some of these he
dwelt upon with great power -.—great especially to
me, who then heard of these things for the first
time in my life. Again and again did the preacher
reiterate the words, 'for every man :' — these glad
tidings, this great salvation, were not for the benefit
of a select few only. They were for the slave as
well as the master, the poor as well as the rich,
the distressed, the heavy laden, the captive. They
were for me — I felt they were for me — among the
rest, a poor, despised, abused creature, deemed of
others fit for nothing but unrequited toil, and
mental and bodily degradation. O, the blessedness
and sweetness of the feeling that then came over
me ! I was loved ! I could have died that
moment with joy for the compassionate Saviour
about whom I was hearing. •' He loves me. He
looks down from heaven in compassion and for-
giveness on me, a great sinner. He died to save
my soul. He'll welcome me to the skies,' I kept
repeating to myself. I was transported with a de-
licious joy I had never felt before. I seemed to
see a glorious Being in a cloud of splendour smiling
down from on high. In sharp contrast with the
experience of the contempt and brutality of my
earthly master, I seemed to bask in the sunshine
of the benignity of this glorious Being! He'll be
D 2
36 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
my dear refuge— He'll wipe away the tears from.
my eyes ! Now I can bear all things. Nothing
will seem hard after this ! I felt sorry that my
master, Riley, did not know this loving Saviour ;
sorry that he should live such a coarse, wicked,
cruel life. Swallowed up in the beauty of the
Divine love, I could love my enemies, and prayed
for them that did despitefully use and entreat me.
" Revolving the things which I had heard in my
mind, and excited as I had never been in my life
before, I turned aside from the road on my way
home into the woods, and spent some time there in
prayer. I prayed as I had never prayed in all my
life, pouring out my whole soul to God. I cried
unto Him for light and aid with an earnestness
which, however unenlightened, was sincere and
heartfelt ; and I have no doubt it was acceptable to
Him who heareth prayer. From this day, so
memorable, so important to me — the day of my
conversion — I date my awakening to a new life, a
consciousness of power and of a destiny superior
to anything I had before conceived of. I began
now to use every means and opportunity of inquiry
into religious matters. Religion became to me,
indeed, the great business and concern of my life.
So deep was my conviction of its superior im-
portance to everything else; so clear my perception
of my own faults, and of the darkness and sin that
&&**
H&3&*
JOSIAH'S PLACE OF PRAYER.
CHAPTER IV. 39
surrounded me, that I could not help talking much
on these subjects with those about me; and all
took notice of the great change that had come over
me, making strangely thoughtful and serious the
ever-frolicsome and mischief-loving lad they had
always known me to be from a child. "
He now began to pray with his fellow- slaves, and
converse with them about subjects concerning
which ^most of them were shut up in the grossest
darkness ; and, as in many other instances, this led
him on by degrees to speak to them collectively, and
address to them an occasional exhortation. As a
fire in his bones was the love of God so unexpect-
edly shed abroad in his heart, and he felt con-
strained by a power within him, which he was very
far from understanding himself, to impart to the
suffering and degraded hordes with whom he was
associated those little glimmerings of light which
had reached his own eye. And, O ! how greatly
was the heart of that godly mother rejoiced by
these new developments in Josiah ! For years
she had as it were travailed in birth again for the
soul of this only child which the cruelty of men had
left her. Profoundly ignorant of all other know-
ledge, she had been made wise unto salvation, and
enjoyed in her own soul the peace and love of God ;
she knew how to value the soul of her boy, and
longed and laboured, under all the disadvantages
40 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
of her condition as an over-wrought slave, to draw
him to Christ. Day and night she had borne him
up before God in prayer. To the best of her
knowledge and ability she had endeavoured, with
loving assiduity, to instil into that bright and active
mind the great principles of religious truth. And
her labour had not been lost. With many tears she
had dropped the good seed into the young heart,
and now the Almighty and all-pervading energy of
God had caused it to germinate and give the
promise of an abundant harvest. During many
years of anxious solicitude, which can be felt only
by a godly mother for an only child, like the prophet
on Carmel, she had laid the fuel in faith that the fire
from above would kindle it ; and now the spark from
heaven, of which M'Kenny was the chosen medium,
had fallen. The precious soul of her child, to her
own great happiness, was all aglow with the fire of
a new and celestial life. Let mothers, more highly
favoured with advantages that never came to the
lot of this poor enslaved daughter of Africa, pursue
the course that her hallowed instincts of affection
prompted her to follow concerning the soul of her
child, and they will reap the same reward. There
is a mighty power in the prayers that are sent to the
skies winged with a devoted mother's faith and love.
Chapter v.
SAD EXPERIENCES IN THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE.
aosiAH was endowed with
more than an ordinary
degree of energy. Quick-
active, clever, and
fruitful in resources, and
always ambitious to excel in
whatever he put his hand to,
he became very valuable to his
master. He watched over that
master's interests with great
fidelity, and exposed the
knavery of the overseers, who plundered their em-
ployer whenever they found the opportunity.
While scafcely out of his boyhood, he had acquired
great influence over his fellow-slaves; and being
appointed superintendent of the farm, he not only
kept the people in better and more cheerful order
than they had ever been before, but he obtained
from them more willing labour, by exercising only
the law of kindness, and doubled the crops, to the
42 JOSIAH I THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
great profit of his owner. The pride and ambition
that were natural to him had made him strive to be
proficient in every department of farm work.
Under a different system this would have brought
to him additional emolument and increased worldly
comfort. But was not Josiah a slave; body and
soul, with all his energies, the absolute property of
his master ? To him, as he was circumstanced, it
brought only an increase of burdens and responsi-
bilities. His master was too much embruted by
his association with slavery, and the exercise of
irresponsible power over the unfortunate ones under
his control, to reward a faithful servant with kind-
ness or decent treatment. Josiah had to care for
all the crops of wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, corn,
tobacco, &c, which the master left entirely to him;
and he was often compelled at midnight to start
with the waggon for a distant market, and drive on
through mud and rain till morning, sell the produce,
and return home hungry and weary, to receive as
his reward only oaths and curses and threatenings
for not obtaining higher prices. Riley was like
most slaveholders of his class, a fearful blasphemer,
and seldom opened his lips without giving utterance
to profane and violent language.
He was also a drunken profligate, indulging in
vile habits which were common enough among
the dissipated planters of the neighbourhood.
CHAPTER V. 43
Saturday and Sunday were their usual holidays ;
and it was their practice to assemble on these days.
at some low tavern, and devote themselves ta
gambling, running horses, fighting game-cocks, and
discussing politics ; indulging in large libations of
whiskey and brandy. Well aware that they would
be in such a condition as not to be able to find their
way home at night, each one would order his
groom, or body-servant, to come after him, to take
care of him, and see him safe home. Josiah was
chosen by his master to perform this office ; and
many a time he has walked by Riley's horse, hold-
ing him in the saddle, which he was too drunk ta
keep without help, plodding, at or after the midnight
hour, through deep darkness and mud some miles
from the tavern to the farm. These drunken
carousals not unfrequently terminated in brawls
and quarrels of the most violent description: glasses
and chairs would be thrown, dirks and knives drawn,
and pistols fired ] some of the ruffianly brawlers
sometimes carrying home with them serious
wounds ; and occasionally a life would be sacrificed
before the uproar ceased. On such occasions, when
the state of things became dangerous, the slave
servants of the rioters were accustomed to rush in
and extricate their masters from the fight, and take
them home. This was often a perilous service to
perform ; not only as the slaves were liable to be
44 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
injured by the weapons called into use, but they
•occasionally turned against themselves the violence
■of the drunken masters, whom, for their own safety,
they sought to lead or control, or that of the
exasperated ruffians to whom they might be
opposed. "To tell the truth," says Josiah, "this
was a part of my business, for which I felt no
reluctance. I was young, remarkably athletic and
■self- relying; and in such affrays, whenever I had to
mingle with them, I carried it with a high hand.
I would elbow my way among the whites, whom it
would have been almost death for me to strike,
seize my master, and drag him out, mount him on
his horse, or crowd him into his buggy, with as
much ease as I would handle a bag of corn."
In one of these brutal outbursts, Josiah's master
became involved in a violent quarrel with a man
named Bryce Lytton, who was overseer to his
brother, another Riley, who owned a farm in the
same neighbourhood. This Lytton was a man of
ruffianly character and ferocious habits. How the
quarrel originated, or who was right or wrong,
Josiah knew not ; but all the rest of the drunken
set sided with Lytton, and there was a general row.
4i I was sitting on the steps," said Josiah, " in front
of the tavern, when I heard the scuffle, and rushed
in to look after my charge. My master was a
noted bruiser, and in such a fight could generally
CHAPTER V. 45
hold his own, and clear a handsome space aroundi
him ; but now he was cornered, and a dozen were
striking at him with fists, crockery, chairs, and any-
thing that came handy. The moment he saw me
he hallooed, * That's it, Sie, pitch in ! show me
fair play ! ' It was a rough business, and I went:
in roughly, shoving and tripping, and doing my
best to get to the rescue of Riley. With much
trouble, and after getting many a bruise on my
head and shoulders, I at length got him out of the
room, and took him safe home. He was crazy with
drink and rage, and struggled hard with me to get
back and renew the fight. But I managed to lift
him into his waggon, jump in, and drive off.
" By ill luck, during the scuffle, Bryce Lytton
got a severe fall. Whether it was the whiskey or
a chance shove from me that caused his fall, I can-
not say. He, however, attributed it to me, and
treasured up his vengeance for the first favourable
opportunity. When sought, such an opportunity is.
readily found.
* { About a week afterwards, I was sent by my master
to a place a few miles distant, on horseback, with,
some letters. I took a short cut through a lane,
separated by gates from the high road, and enclosed,
by a fence on either side. This lane passed through
part of the farm belonging to my master's brother,
and Lytton was in an adjacent field with three
46 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Negroes when I was passing by. On my return,
half-an-hour afterwards, the overseer was sitting on
the fence : but I could see nothing of the Negroes.
I rode on quite unsuspicious of any trouble : but
as I rode up he jumped off the fence, and at the •
same moment two of the Negroes sprang from
.under the bushes, where they had been concealed,
and stood with him in front of me, while the other
sprang over the fence just behind me. I was thus
enclosed between what I could no longer doubt
were hostile forces. Lytton seized the bridle, and
ordered me to alight, in no gentle terms, oaths and
curses flowing from his lips, as was usual with him,
with great volubility. I asked what I was to alight
for. * To take such a flogging as you never had in
your life, you black scoundrel, ' using a variety of
expletives which I care not to repeat. ' But what
am I to be flogged for, Mr. Lytton ?' I asked. ' Not
a word,' said he, ' but light at once, and take off your
jacket.' I saw there was nothing else to be done,
and slipped off the horse on the opposite side from
him. * Now take off your shirt,' cried he ; and as
I demurred at this, he lifted a stick he had in his
hand to strike me, but so suddenly and violently
that he frightened the horse, which broke away
from him, and galloped off in the direction of his
stable. I was thus left without means of escape
to sustain the attack of four men as well as I might.
CHAPTER V, 47
In avoiding Mr. Lytton's blow, I had accidentally
got into a corner of the snake fence, where I could
not be approached except in front. The overseer
called upon the Negroes to seize me ; but they,
knowing something of my muscular power, were
slow to obey. At length they did their best, and
as they brought themselves within my reach, I
knocked them all down in succession, and there
they lay sprawling on the ground, in no hurry to
get up and renew the attack. One of them trying
to trip up my feet when he was down, I gave him
a kick with my heavy shoe, which knocked out
several of his teeth, and sent him howling away.
" Meanwhile the overseer was playing away
upon my head with a stick ; not heavy enough, in-
deed, to knock me down, but drawing blood freely ;
shouting all the while, c Won't you give up ?
Won't you give up, you black ■ ? ' Exas-
perated at my defence, he suddenly seized upon
one of the heavy fence rails, and rushed at me, to
bring the contest to a sudden close. The ponder-
ous blow fell. I lifted my arm to ward it off: the
bone cracked like a pipe-stem, and I fell headlong
to the ground. Repeated blows then rained upon
me till both my shoulder blades were broken, and
the blood gushed copiously from my mouth. In
vain the Negroes endeavoured to interpose.
* Didn't you see the nigger strike me ? ' This
48 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
was false ; for the lying coward had avoided close
quarters, and kept carefully beyond my reach,
fighting with his stick alone. His vengeance
satisfied, at length he desisted, telling me to leara
what it was to strike a white man."
" Meanwhile an alarm had been given at the
house by the return of the horse without a rider,,
and my master started off with a small party in
search of me. When he first saw me he was swear-
ing with rage. ' You've been fighting, you —
nigger.' I told him Bryce Lytton had been beat-
ing me, because I shoved him the other night at
the tavern when there was a row. Seeing how
much I was injured, he became more fearfully en-
raged ; and after having me carried home, for I
was unable to move, he mounted his horse, and
rode over to Montgomery Court House, to enter a
complaint. But little came of it. Lytton swore
that I was insolent, jumped off my horse, made at
him, and would have killed him but for the help of
his Negroes. Of course no Negro's testimony
could be admitted against a white man, and he was
acquitted. My master was obliged to pay all the
costs of court ; and although he had the satisfaction
of denouncing Lytton as a liar and a scoundrel,
and giving him a tremendous bruising that sent
him to his bed for several days, yet even this was
rendered the less gratifying by what followed,,
CHAPTER V. 49
which was a suit for damages, and a heavy fine
for the assault."
By this brutal treatment poor Josiah was
maimed and disabled for life. When I was first
introduced to him, I observed that he could not
lift his hand to his head ; and that when he had to
put on or take off his hat he brought his head
down to his hand. Both his arms appeared
to be shorter than they should have been in pro-
portion to his size, and he was stiff and awkward
in the use of them. And this was the cause. Be-
sides the broken arm, and the wounds on his head
and other parts of his person, both his shoulder
blades were broken, and he could hear and feel the
shattered bones grating against each other at every
breath he drew. His sufferings, as he described
them, were intense. No physician or surgeon
was called in to dress his wounds or set the broken
bones. It was not the practice on Riley's planta-
tion to spend money upon doctors, and none was
ever called in on any occasion whatever. "A
nigger will get well any way," was a doctrine re-
cognised and acted upon there. " And facts seemed
to justify it," observed Josiah. " The robust, phy-
sical health produced by a life of out-door labour
made our wounds heal up with as little inflamma-
tion as they do in the case of cattle." He was at-
tended by his master's sister, Miss Patty, as she
E
50 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
was called upon the farm, who was looked upon as
the .ZEsculapius of the plantation. She was a power-
ful, big-boned woman, of Amazonian proportions
and strength, unencumbered by anything like diffi-
dence, and ready, whenever occasion presented, to
wrench out a tooth, set and splinter a broken bone,
or take a rifle, as she had been known to do, and
shoot a furious ox that the Negroes were in vain
attempting to butcher. She set herself to repair,
as well as she knew how, the injuries that Josiah
had received. " But alas !" said the sufferer, " it
was but cobbler's work. From that day to this I
have been unable to raise my hands as high as my
head. It was five months before I could work at
all : and the first time I held the plough, a hard
knock of the coulter against a stone shattered my
shoulder-blades again, and gave me even greater
agony than at first. And so I have gone through
life maimed and mutilated. Practice enabled me
in time to perform the farm labours with consider-
able efficiency ; but the free, vigorous play of
muscle and arm was gone for ever."
Crippled as he was, Josiah was able to save his
master the expenditure of a considerable salary to
a white overseer. He was made the superinten-
4ent of the estate, and gradually came to have the
.disposal of everything raised on the farm. The
.wheat, oats, hay, fruit, butter, &c, were confided to
CHAPTER V. 51
him, and he obtained better prices for them than
the master could do himself, or any one else was
likely to do for him. " I will not deny," he said,
" that I used his property more freely than he would
have done in supplying his slaves with proper
food ; but in this I did him no wrong, for it was un-
equivocally for his own benefit, as the people did
better and more cheerful work, and produced more
abundant crops. I accounted, with the strictest
honesty, for every dollar I received in the sale of
the property entrusted to me."
e 2
Chapter vi.
BECOMES A FUGITIVE FOR HIS MASTER'S OWN PROFIT.
hen he was about
^twenty-two years of
age, Josiah took to him-
self a wife. The object
of his choice was a girl
who had been well brought up
in a neighbouring family, who
bore the reputation of beings
pious, and kind to their slaves*
He first met her at some of the
religious meetings held in the neighbourhood, and
a mutual attachment sprang up between them ;.
and with the consent of all parties she became his
wife. " She was the mother of my twelve chil-
dren," he said to me, " eight of whom still survive,,
and promise to be the comfort of my declining
years."
Things went on with little change for several
years, when his master, at the age of forty-five,.
CHAPTER VI. 53
married a girl of eighteen, who had some little
property. She was remarkable for, and practised,
a degree of economy in the household which
brought no addition to the comfort of the family.
She had a younger brother, named Francis, to
whom Riley was appointed guardian. " The youth
used to complain," Josiah remarked, " not without
reason, I am confident, of the meanness of the
provision made for the household ; and he would
often come to me, with tears in his eyes, to tell me
he could not get enough to eat. I made him my
friend by sympathizing with his grief and satisfying
his appetite, sharing with him the food I took care
to provide for my own family."
After a while the dissipation of Josiah's master
became more than a match for his wife's domestic
saving, and he became involved in difficulty and
pecuniary embarrassment. This was enhanced
by a lawsuit with a brother-in-law, who charged
him with dishonesty in the management of property
confided to him in trust. The litigation was pro-
tracted, and it brought him to ruin.
Harsh and tyrannical as he had often been,
Josiah pitied him in his distress. At times he was
dreadfully dejected and cast down ; at others crazy
with drink and rage, swearing and storming at all
about him. " Day after day," said his faithful
.slave, " he would ride over to Montgomery Court
54 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
House, to look after this troublesome business, and
every day his affairs became more desperate. He
would come into my cabin, to tell me how the suit
was progressing; but spent the time chieflyin lament-
ing his misfortunes, 5 and cursing his brother-in-law.
I tried to comfort him as well as I could. He had
confidence in my fidelity and judgment ; and
partly through a sort of pride or self-complacency
I felt in being thus appealed to, but more through
the spirit of love I had learned to admire and imi-
tate in the Lord Jesus Christ, I entered with great
interest into all his perplexities. The poor, drink-
ing, furious, moaning creature was utterly incapa-
ble of managing his affairs. Shiftlessness, licen*
tiousness, and drink, had complicated them quite
as much as actual dishonesty.''
At length the crisis came. " One night, in the
month of January, long after I had fallen asleep,
overcome with the fatigues of the day, he came
into my cabin and roused me up. I thought it
strange : but for a time he said nothing, and sat
moodily warming himself by the fire. Then he
began to groan and wring his hands. ' Sick,
massa ? - said I. He made no reply ; but kept on
moaning. * Can't I help you any way, massa ? ' I
spoke tenderly ; for my heart was full of compas-
sion at his wretched appearance. At last, collect-
ing himself, he cried, * 0, Sie ! I'm ruined, ruined,
CHAPTER VI. 55
ruined ! ' e How so, massa ? \ i They've got judg-
ment against me; and in less that two weeks
every nigger I've got will be put up and sold.' Then
he burst into a storm of curses at his brother-in-
law.
" I sat silent, powerless to utter a word. Not only
did I pity him, but I was filled with terror at the
anticipation of the sad fate which I perceived was
now hanging over my own family, and the terrible
separation with which we were threatened. So it
is. The calamity that falls upon the master often
comes with tenfold crushing weight upon his
unfortunate slaves.
" ' And now, Sie,' continued Riley, < there's only
one way I can save anything. You can do it : won't
you, won't you ? • In his great distress he rose,
and actually threw his arms around me. Misery
had levelled all distinctions. ' If I can do it, Massa,
I will. What is it ? ' Without replying he went
on, i Won't you, won't you ? I raised you, Sie ; I
made you overseer ; I know I've often abused you,
Sie, but I didn't mean it.' Still he avoided telling
me what he wanted. t Promise me you'll do it,
boy ! ' He seemed resolutely bent on having my
promise first, well knowing from past experience
that what I agreed to do I should spare no pains
or labour to accomplish. Solicited in this way, so
urgently, and with tears, by the man whom I had
56 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
so zealously served for many years, and who now
seemed absolutely dependent upon his slave — im-
pelled, too, by the fear which he skilfully awakened
that the sheriff would seize every one who belonged
to him, and that all would be separated, or perhaps
sold to go to Georgia or Louisiana, — a fate greatly
dreaded by slaves in the border states, — I consented,
and promised to do all I could' to save him from
the fate impending over him.
" At last the proposition came. < I want you to
run away, Sie, to my brother Amos, in Kentucky,
and take all the servants along with you.' I could
not have been more startled had he asked me to go
to the moon. ' Kentucky, Massa, Kentucky ? I don't
know the way ! ' * O, it's easy enough for a smart
fellow like you to find it. I'll give you a pass,
and tell you just what to do.' Perceiving that I
hesitated, he endeavoured to frighten me by
again referring to the terrors of being sold to
Georgia.
"For two or three hours he continued to urge
me to the undertaking, appealing now to my sym-
pathy and compassion, then to my pride, and again
to my fears. At last, appalling as it seemed to me,
I yielded, and told him I would do my best.
There were eighteen Negroes, besides my wife, two
children, and myself, to transport nearly a thou-
sand miles, through a country about which I knew
CHAPTER VI. 57
nothing, and in mid-winter; for it was the month
of February, 1825. My master proposed to follow
me in a few months, and establish himself in Ken-
tucky."
Josiah set himself earnestly about the needful
preparations. They were few, and easily made.
Fortunately for the success of the questionable
undertaking, the Negroes of the plantation fell
readily into the scheme. Devotedly attached to
him who was to be their leader and guide, because
of the many alleviations he had afforded to their
miserable condition, the kindly consideration he
had always shown to them, and the comforts he
had procured them, they readily submitted them-
selves to his authority. Besides, the dread of
being sold away down South, should they remain
on the old estate, united them as one man, and kept
them patient and alert.
A one-horse waggon was prepared, well stocked
with meal and bacon for the support of the party,
and oats for the use of the horse. The second
night after the scheme was broached they were on
their way. They started about eleven o'clock, and
made no halt until noon on the following day ; for
all were anxious to put as great a distance between
themselves and the evils that threatened them as
possible. The men trudged on foot, the women
and children rode in the waggon, and walked alter-
58 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
nately, as they were able. On they went through
Alexandria, Culpepper, Fanquier, Harper's Ferry,
and Cumberland, most of them places rendered
familiar by the events of the late civil war, until
they arrived at Wheeling. At the taverns along the
road they found places prepared for the use of the.
droves of Negroes that were continually passing
along, under the system of the internal slave trade.
There they lodged, paying for the accommodation ?
this being their only expense, as they carried their
food with them. When questions were put to them,,
as was not unfrequently the case, Josiah exhibited
the " pass " which his master had given him, autho-
rizing him to conduct his Negroes to Kentucky :
his vanity being occasionally gratified when the
encomium of " smart nigger" was applied to him.
At the places where they stopped to rest for the
night they often met with Negro drivers, and their
gangs of slaves, almost uniformly chained to pre-
vent their running away. " Whose niggers are
these ? " was an inquiry often propounded to
Josiah. On being informed, the next inquiry would
be, " Where are they going?" "To Kentucky."
" Who drives them ? " " Well, I have charge of
them," was Josiah's reply. "What a smart
nigger ! " was the usual exclamation, accompanied
with an oath. " Will your master sell you ? Come
in, and stop with us." In this way he was often
CHAPTER VI. 59*
invited to pass the evening with them inside ;.
their Negroes, meanwhile, lying chained in the:
pen, while Josiah's party were scattered around at
liberty.
Arrived at Wheeling, on the Ohio River, accord-
ing to the instructions given to him, Josiah sold,
the horse and waggon, and purchased a large boat,,
called in that region a yawl, in which he embarked
the whole party, and floated down the river. This.
mode of locomotion was much more agreeable than
tramping along, foot- sore, day after day, at the rate,
they had been limited to ever since leaving home.
Very little labour at the oars was necessary, for
jthe current floated them steadily along, and they
had ample leisure to rest and recruit their strength-
A great trouble now arose, altogether new and
unexpected to Josiah. They were passing along
the shore of. the State of Ohio, one of the north-
ern free states, and were repeatedly told by persons,
who entered into conversation with them that they
were no longer slaves, but free men, if they chose
to be so. At Cincinnati, especially, as soon as,
they arrived there, crowds of coloured people
gathered about them, and almost insisted on the
party remaining with them ; telling them they were
fools to think of going on, and surrendering them-
selves to a new owner; that now they could be
their own masters, and easily put themselves out
€o J03IAH I THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
of reach of pursuit. " It was a great tempta-
tion, ,J said Josiah. "I saw the people under me
were getting much excited, and signs of insub-
ordination began to manifest themselves. I began,
too, to feel my own resolution giving way. Free-
dom had ever been an object of my ambition,
though no other means of obtaining it but purchas-
ing myself had occurred to me. I had never
dreamed of running away. I had a sentiment of
honour on the subject. The duties of the slave to
his master, as appointed over him in the Lord, I
had always heard urged by ministers and religious
men ; it seemed to me like outright stealing to
run away. And now I thought the devil was get-
ting the upper hand of me. The idea was very
entrancing that the coast was clear for a run for
freedom ; that I might liberate my companions,
carry off my wife and children, and some day pos-
sess a house and land, and be no longer despised
and abused as a slave. Still my notions of right
were against it. I had promised my master
to take his property to Kentucky, and commit it
to the care of his brother Amos ; and how
could I break my word ? Pride, too, came in to
confirm me in my resolution to be faithful to my
master's interests. I had undertaken what appeared
to me to be a great thing. My vanity had been
ilattered all along the road by hearing myself
CHAPTER VI. 6t
praised. I thought it would be a feather in my
cap to carry through this expedition successfully ;
and I had often painted the scene, in my imagina-
tion, of the final surrender of my charge to Master
Amos, and the immense admiration and respect
with which he would regard me.
" Under these impressions, and seeing that the
allurements of the crowd were producing a mani-
fest effect on my charge, I sternly assumed the
captain, and ordered the boat to be pushed off into*
the stream. A shower of execrations at my folly
followed me from the shore ; but the Negroes under
me, accustomed to obey, and, alas ! too degraded
and ignorant of the advantages of liberty to under-
stand what they were forfeiting, offered no resist-
ance to my command.
" Often since that day has my soul been pierced
with bitter anguish at the thought of having been
thus instrumental in consigningto the infernal bond-
age of slavery so many of my fellow beings. I
have wrestled in prayer with God for forgiveness of
this sin. Having experienced myself the sweet-
ness of liberty, and knowing too well the after
misery of numbers of them, my infatuation has
seemed to me almost unpardonable. But I console
myself with the thought that I acted according to
my best light, though the light that was in me
was darkness. Those were my days of ignorance.
62 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
I knew not the glory of free manhood. I was
ignorant of the fact that the title of the slave-
holder is only robbery and outrage."
Arrived at the end of the journey, Josiah deli-
vered up his charge to the brother of his owner,
Amos Riley, who was the possessor of a large
plantation on Big Blackford's Creek, about five
miles south of the Ohio River. This was wrought
by the labour of between eighty and one hundred
slaves. The recommendation w r hich he carried
with him from his old master for ability and
honesty, and the perseverance, fidelity, and tact
which he had shown in bringing his fellow- slaves
from Maryland, procured for him the general
management of the plantation. His situation was
here in some respects an improvement upon that he
had left. The farm was larger and more fertile,
and there was a greater abundance of food; which
was one of the principal elements of comfort in the
life of a slave, debarred as he was by his lowly con-
dition from almost all the enjoyments of life, and
so nearly reduced to the level of the brutes.
" Sufficiency of food," Josiah remarked, " is a pretty
important item in any man's account of life ; but
is tenfold more so in that of the slave, whose appe-
tite is always stimulated by as much labour as he
can perform, and whose mind is little occupied by
thought on subjects of deeper interest."
Chapter vii,
ENTERS ON THE WORK OF A METHODIST PREACHER,
osiah remained three
years on Master Amos's
plantation, and during
this time his post of
superintendent gave
him some advantages,
of which he was not slow to avail
himself, particularly with regard
to religion ; which, since he had
first heard of Christ and Chris-
tianity, had occupied his mind continually. We
have seen how he was brought under Gospel influ-
ences, and became a partaker of the spiritual life
which produces so wonderful a transformation of the
inner man. In Kentucky he found more numer-
ous opportunities of religious instruction than he
had before ; attending, whenever he was able, on
the preaching- of the white ministers as well as the
blacks. He also embraced every opportunity of
visiting the camp-meetings which were held from
time to time in the neighbourhood, pondering
64 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
carefully and prayerfully what he heard, studying
his own heart, and carefully observing the develop-
ments of character in those around him. Thus,
without being able to read the Word of God for
himself, being shrewd, observant, and thoughtful, he
acquired a considerable acquaintance with religious
truth, and became well grounded in his knowledge
of the great plan of redemption, and of salvation
by faith in Christ Jesus, as held and taught by the
Methodists. Nor was his by any means a solitary
instance. Cut off as they were from ordinary ad-
vantages of instruction by oppressive laws that
punished as a crime the teaching of the art of
reading to a slave, many of them, by hearing and
the use of memory, and the awakening of the
power and habit of thought within them, obtained
a knowledge of religion and the Bible that was
truly surprising.
Anxious to learn, and eagerly availing himself of
all opportunities of listening to expositions of the
truth, the nobler faculties of Josiah's nature were
aroused and brought into active exercise. He not
only thought much, but yearned in pity over the
blindness and ignorance in which he saw his fellow
slaves around him deeply buried, longing to shed
upon their minds the light which had come into
and filled his own. It was like fire in his bones.
Gradually he became accustomed to take part im
CHAPTER VII. 65
the prayer-meetings that he attended, and then to
address to those around him the word of exhortation,
until he learned by practice how best to arouse and
stir up the callous and indifferent to a concern
about their souls. God owned his labours, and
many poor sinners through his instrumentality were
brought to God ; and he was abundantly encou-
raged to improve himself by all means within his
reach, and " devote himself," as he expressed it,
" to the cultivation of those harvests which ripen
only in eternity." After being three years thus
employed in the improvement and exercise of such
gifts as were granted unto him, he was admitted as
a preacher by a quarterly conference of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church.
Josiah's old master, Riley, could not prevail upon
his wife to leave her friends in Maryland, and go,
as he wished, to settle in Kentucky. Consequently,
in the spring of 1828, he sent out an agent to sell
all his slaves excepting only Josiah and his family,
and to carry back to him the proceeds of the sale.
Now it was that Josiah discovered the error of
which he had been guilty, in preventing the
escape from slavery of so many of his fellow-bonds-
men, when they might have so easily stepped into
liberty by simply getting out of the boat, and
mingling with the crowd who were earnestly per-
suading them to cast off their bonds. Now he was
F
66 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
to behold another of those heart-rending scenes
which had been so deeply impressed upon his soul
when his mother was made a widow, while still a
wife, and bereft of all her children except himself,
by the iron selfishness generated under the hate-
ful " institution'* that gave man a right of property
in his fellow man. Now, again, he was to see
husbands and wives, parents and children, severed
for ever, and all those affections, which are as
strong in the African as in the European, cruelly
disregarded and ruthlessly trampled under foot-
True, he and his family were to be exempted from
a personal share in the calamity, as they were not
to be sold. But he was overwhelmed with grief,
and self-condemnation, and remorse, when heremem-
bered that, but for his disregard of his own rights
and the rights of his fellow slaves, this calamity
could not have happened ; and, instead of being
consigned to the wrongs and cruel oppressions of
the South, every one of these husbands and wives,
and parents and children, might have been happy
and comfortable and prosperous in the land of the
free.
" As I surveyed the scene/' he said, " and lis-
tened to the groans and outcries of my afflicted
companions, the torments of hell seized upon me.
My eyes were opened, and the guilty madness of
my conduct in preventing them from availing them-
CHAPTER VII. 67
selves of the opportunity for acquiring freedom,
which offered itself at Cincinnati, overwhelmed
me. This, then, was the reward and end of all
my faithfulness to my master. I had thought only
of him and his interests, not of them or their wel-
fare. ! what would I not have given to have
had the chance offered once more ! And now
through me were they doomed to wear out life
miserably in the hot and pestilential climate of the
far South. Death would have been welcome to
me in my agony. From that hour, as I had never
done before, I saw through, hated, and cursed, the
whole system of slavery. I awoke as from a
dream, and one absorbing purpose now occupied
my soul — freedom, self-assertion, deliverance from
the cruel caprices and fortunes of dissolute tyrants.
Once to get away, with my wife and children, to
some spot where I could feel that they were indeed
mine — where no grasping master could stand be-
tween me and them, an arbiter of their destiny —
was a heaven yearned after with insatiable longing.
For this I prayed with all the fervency of which I
was capable : and for this I stood ready to toil and
to dissemble, to plot like a fox, or to fight like a
tiger. All the nobler instincts of my soul, and all
the ferocious passions of my animal nature, were
aroused and quickened into vigorous action as they
had never been before/'
F 2
68 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
It was no real kindness to Josiah that prompted
his old master, Riley, to exempt him from the sale
with his family; but a desire, on his part, to have
them back to Maryland, to be employed in his own
service. His best farms had been taken away
from him, and only a few tracts of poor land
remained. After his slaves had been run off to
Kentucky, under Josiah's care, he cultivated these
with the labour of hired Negroes, and every month
grew poorer and more desperate. He now wrote
to his brother Amos, to give Josiah a pass, and let
him travel back. But this Amos was reluctant to
do, as Josiah saved him the expense of employing
a white overseer; and he knew, moreover, that no
legal measures could be taken to force him to
comply. Josiah was aware of all this, but dared
not reem anxious to return, for fear of exciting
suspicion.
During the summer of 1828, a Methodist preacher,
a white man of excellent character and abilities,
visited the neighbourhood, and Josiah formed an
acquaintance with him. " This gentleman," said
Josiah, " soon became interested in me. Observing
how my arms were crippled, and shorter than they
should naturally have been, he inquired kindly into
the cause, which I explained to him. This appeared
to increase his regard for me, and he visited and
conversed with me frequently.
CHAPTER VII. 69
"One day he entered into conversation with me,
In a confidential way, about my position and
prospects. ' You ought to be free,' he said, * for
you have good capabilities, which ought not to be
confined to the limited and comparatively useless
sphere of a slave. Though I must not be known
to have spoken with you on this subject, yet if you
will obtain Mr. Amos' consent to go and see your
old master in Maryland, I will try and put you in a
way by which I think you may succeed in buying
yourself.'"
More than once they had the same subject up,
and the advice was repeated. It was in harmony
with all the aspirations and wishes that Josiah
cherished, flattering to the self esteem in which he
was by no means deficient, and it stimulated his
impatience to bring matters to an issue. He
resolved therefore to make the attempt to obtain
the necessary leave. The autumn work was over ;
he could be spared from the fields now with less
inconvenience than at any other part of the year;
and a better chance could not offer itself. Still he
dreaded to make the proposal. So much seemed
to hang upon it ; such fond hopes were bound up
with it, that he trembled for the result. At length
he wrought himself up, after much prayer, to the
venture.
"I opened the subject," said he, "one Sunday
70 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
morning, while shaving Mr. Amos, and adroitly
managed, by bringing the shaving brush close into
his mouth whenever he appeared disposed to
interrupt me, to get a good say first, and compel
him to think of my request in silence. Of course, I
made no allusion to the plan I was meditating of
buying myself. Any mention of that would have
insured a refusal. I urged my request on the sole
ground of a desire to see my master. To my
surprise and joy, he made little objection. He said
I had been faithful to him, and gained his regard.
I had earned such an indulgence, and long before
spring I could be back again."
The certificate given him by Mr. Amos allowed
him to pass and repass between Kentucky and
Maryland as " the servant of Amos Riley."
Furnished with this, and also with a letter from
his preacher friend to a brother Minister in
Cincinnati, he started about the middle of Sep-
tember for the East.
A new era now opened upon our anxious friend.
The letter he carried with him to Cincinnati pro-
cured for him many friends, who became interested
in him, and entered heartily into his plans, con-
cerning which no necessity for silence now existed.
They procured for him an opportunity to preach in
several of the pulpits of the city, where he related
the leading events of his history, and made his
CHAPTER VII. 71
appeal to a sympathizing people, with that
eloquence which often breaks forth from a soul all
alive, and fanned into a glow by an inspiring project.
Contact with those who were free themselves, and
a sort of proud consciousness, as he described it,
that his destiny was now in a great measure in his
own hands, aroused within him a power he had
never possessed before, and which produced a con-
siderable effect upon many who listened to him.
After four days spent in that Queen City of the
West, he left it with a hundred and sixty dollars in
his pocket, which kind friends had contributed
towards enabling him to buy his freedom.
Buoyant with hope, and jubilant with thanks-
giving, Josiah next directed his steps to Chillicotha,
in company with his preacher adviser, who had
joined him at Cincinnati. At this place the sittings
of the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church were appointed to be held. There in due
time they arrived, and Josiah found many friends,
to whom he was kindly introduced by his travelling
companion and adviser. His visit to this place was
to him a source of great enjoyment, and a new world
seemed opening before him. Speaking of his
benefactor he remarked : —
" By his advice, after the Conference was over,
I purchased a decent suit of clothes and an excellent
horse, and travelled from town to town, preaching
72 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
as I went. Everywhere I met with kindness. The
contrast between the respect with which I was now
treated, and the ordinary abuse, or at best insolent
familiarity, of plantation life, was very grateful to
me, as it must be to any one who feels that he
possesses the noble nature of a man. The sweet
enjoyment of sympathy, moreover, and the hearty
* God speed you, brother,' which accompanied every
dollar I received, were to my long-starved heart a
celestial repast, and angels' food. Liberty was a
glorious hope in my mind ; not as an escape from
toil, for I rejoiced in toil when my heart was in it,
but as an avenue to the sense of self-respect, to
ennobling occupation, and to association with
superior minds. Still, dear as was the thought of
liberty, I clung to my determination to gain it only
in one way — by purchase. The cup of my affliction
had not, as yet, been full enough to lead me to dis.
regard all terms with my master."
Chapter viiL
1
,. ._\uW.iO(kW..i
A f0
3NmftS
lHKKMKft
DEFRAUDED AND BETRAYED BY HIS MASTER.
efore he left the State
of Ohio, and set his
f face towards Mont-
V gomery County, in
Maryland, where his
master resided, Josiah
found himself possessed of two
hundred and seventy. five dollars,
besides the horse and clothes which
he had purchased. He was,
perhaps, a little unduly elated with
his success, and it was with no little satisfaction
that about Christmas he rode up to the old house,
and found himself again upon the farm where he
had been known simply as " Riley's head nigger."
His master gave him a boisterous reception, and
expressed great delight at seeing him, exclaiming
in his old, brutal fashion, as he looked upon him,
" Why, what the have you been doing, Sie ?
You've turned into a regular black gentleman."
Josiah's horse and dress sorely puzzled the master;
m
Mn
iff
74 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
and Josiah soon saw that it began to irritate him,,
that he, a slave, should be so much better dressed
than his master. " Already," said josiah, " the
workings of that tyrannical hate with which the
coarse and brutal, who have no inherent superiority,,
ever regard the least f sign of equality in their
dependents, were visible in his manner. His face
seemed to say, ' I'll take the gentleman out of you.
pretty soon/ I gave him such an account of my
preaching as, while it was consistent with the truths
and explained my appearance, did not betray to him
my principal purpose. He soon asked to see my
pass ; and, when he found it authorized me to retura
to Kentucky, handed it to his wife, and desired her
to put it in his desk. This manoeuvre was cool and
startling, for I had not calculated upon it. I seemed
to hear the old prison gate clang, and the bolt shoot
into the socket once more. But I said nothings
and resolved to manoeuvre also."
After putting his horse in the stable, he returned
to the kitchen, where his master told him he was to
sleep for the night. " O, how different," he.
exclaimed, " from the accommodation which had
been afforded to me in the Free States for the last
three months, was the crowded room, with its dirt
floor, and filth, and stench ! I looked around me
with a feeling of disgust. The Negroes that I found
there were all strangers to me, being slaves that
CHAPTER VIII. 75:
Mrs. Riley had brought to her husband. Fool that
I was to come back ! The idea of lying down in
this nasty sty was insufferable."
He found that his mother had died and passed.
to the better land during his absence, and every
tie which had ever connected him with the place
was broken. Full of gloomy reflections on his
loneliness and the poverty-stricken aspect of all
around him, he sat down, and while his companions
were snoring in unconsciousness, he kept awake,
thinking how he should escape from the now
wretched spot. He knew but of one friend to
whom he could appeal for help — Master Frank,
the brother of Riley's wife. Josiah had often done
much to relieve his wants, and to lighten his sor-
rows, when he was an abused and harshly-treated-
boy in the house ; and he had ascertained that the
young man, who was now of age, had established,
himself in business at Washington. To him he
resolved to go ; and in the morning, as soon as he
thought it time to start, he saddled his horse and
rode up to the house, thinking it best to put a bold
front on the matter, and get back his pass, if prac-
ticable. It was early ; but the master had already,,
according to his habit, betaken himself to the
tavern. Mrs. Riley came to the door, to look at
his horse and equipments. " Where are you
going, Siah ?" was the natural question. " I am.
76 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
going to Washington, mistress," he replied. " I
want to see Massa Frank, and I must take my
pass with me, if you please." " O, every body
knows you here," she remarked ; " you won't need
your pass." " But I can't go to Washington with-
out it, mistress ; I may be met by some surly
stranger, who will stop me and annoy me, if he
cannot do anything worse." " Well, I'll get it for
you," she answered; and Josiah's heart danced
with joy to see her return with it in her hand, and
once more to get it in his own possession.
He met with a kind and hearty reception from
Master Frank, to whom he at once communicated
.all his plans and hopes. The young man, who had
not outgrown the generous impulses of youth,
entered cordially into them, and promised all the
assistance in his power. He had not forgotten the
friendly services Josiah had rendered to him in
former days. He thoroughly detested Riley, whom
he charged with having defrauded him of a large
portion of the property which he held for him as
his guardian. He was not, however, at open war
with him ; and he readily engaged to negotiate for
Josiah's freedom, and bring Riley to the most
favourable terms that could be obtained. In a few
days he rode over to Riley's house, and had a long
conversation with him concerning Josiah's desire
to purchase his freedom. " He disclosed to him
CHAPTER VIII. 77
the facts that I had got some money," said Josiah ,
"and that I had regained possession of my pass ;
and urged upon him that I was a smart fellow who
was bent upon getting my freedom. He reminded
him that I had served the family faithfully for
many years, and had really paid for myself a hun-
dred times over, in the increased amount of pro-
duce I had raised by my skill and influence. And
he further told him that if he did not take care and
accept a fair offer when I made it to him, he would
find some day that Sie could do without his help,
and he would neither see me nor my money — that
with my horse and my pass, and being a smart
fellow withal, I was pretty well independent of him
already, and he had better make up his mind to
do what I desired of him with a good grace. "
By these and similar arguments Mr. Frank
not only induced his brother-in-law to think of the
thing, but before long brought him to a bargain*
by which he agreed to emancipate Josiah, and give
him the requisite papers, for four hundred and fifty
dollars : of which three hundred and fifty dollars
were to be in cash, and the remainder in a promis-
sory note. The cash he had already in hand ; and
this, with the sale of his horse, enabled Josiah to
fulfil the first part of the bargain, and his great
hope seemed to be in a fair way of realization.
Some time was spent in this negotiation ; but in
78 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
March he was ready to start on his return to Ken-
tucky, his manumission papers having been made
out in due form of law. As he was getting ready
for his journey, his master accosted him in the
most friendly manner, and entered into conversa
tion with him about his plans for the future. He
inquired of Josiah what he was going to do with his
certificate of freedom, and whether he would show
it if questioned on the road ? Josiah replied in the
affirmative. " You'll be a fool if you do," rejoined
Riley; "some slave-trader will get hold of it and
tear it up, and the first thing you know you'll be
thrown into prison, sold for your jail fees, and be
in his possession before any friend can help you.
Don't show it at all. Your pass is enough. Let
irie enclose your papers for you, under cover to my
brother. Nobody will dare to break a seal, for that
is a state-prison matter ; and when you arrive in
Kentucky you will have it with you all safe and
sound."
For this friendly advice, as Josiah thought it to
"be, so plausible and reasonable, he felt extremely
grateful. He cherished no suspicion. In his own
presence Riley enclosed the precious papers in an
'envelope and several wrappers ; and after he had
sealed it with three seals, he directed it to his
brother, in Davies County, Kentucky, and then
handed it to Josiah, who stowed it carefully away
CHAPTER VIII. 79
In his carpet bag. Then bidding Riley and his
wife farewell, he started on foot to Wheeling,
where he took the steamboat, and in due time
reached his destination. He had various adven-
tures on the way, being several times arrested on
suspicion of being a runaway slave. But he
always insisted upon being carried before a
Magistrate ; and showing his pass, which was
perfectly regular, he was always at once set at
liberty.
Many an instance has occurred of slaves being
plundered, over and over again, of the freedom
which they had fairly earned and paid for. After
devoting themselves for years to toil and saving in
order to purchase themselves, and gain the blessing
of liberty, they have found themselves betrayed
and cheated, and the cup of blessing dashed from
their lips just as they supposed themselves about
to taste it. Josiah was to experience a bitter trial
of this kind. The master who, from his childhood,
had reaped all the fruit of his toil, whose sub-
stance he had largely increased, and whom he had
trusted and paid for his freedom, was a villain —
a mean, contemptible swindler — who did not scruple
to deceive and defraud the trusting dependent
whom he professed to befriend. The boat which
took Josiah down the river from Louisville stopped
at the landing place just as it was getting dark,
80 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
and a walk of five miles brought him to the plan-
tation of Amos Riley. He went directly to his own
cabin, and found his wife and little ones all well,
and expecting his arrival.
He now discovered that letters had arrived at
the " great house, " containing information con-
cerning him ; and his wife had already learnt that
he had been preaching, and had raised money, and
made a bargain for his freedom. It was not long
before she began to question him on these subjects,
being evidently possessed with the idea that he
could not have acquired so large a sum of money
by honest methods. He soon quieted her fears, by
explaining to her how he had met with kind friends,
who sympathized with his views, and came forward
with their contributions to help him in gaining his
freedom.
Satisfied on these points, the anxious wife then
proposed the question, " But how are you going to
raise enough to pay the remainder of the thousand
dollars?" " What thousand dollars?" he inquired*
" Why, the thousand dollars you were to give for
your freedom." He was staggered ; he trembled,
for now he began to suspect some treachery.
Again and again he questioned his wife as to what
she had heard. She persisted in the same story,
saying that it was so stated in his master's letters.
Master Amos said that three hundred and fifty
CHAPTER VIII. 8l
dollars had been paid down, and when six hundred
and fifty more were paid Josiah was to have his
freedom.
" I now began to perceive the trick that had been
played upon me," Josiah said, "and to see the
management by which Riley had contrived that the
only evidence of my freedom should be kept from
every eye but that of his brother Amos, who was
instructed to retain it until I had made up the
balance I was falsely reported to have agreed to
pay. Indignation is a faint word to express my
sense of the villany by which I had been victimized.
I was alternately beside myself with rage, and
paralyzed with despair. My dream of bliss was
over. What could I do to set myself right? The
only witness to the truth, Master Frank, was a
thousand miles away. I could neither write to him
nor get any one else to write. Every man about me
who could write was a slaveholder. I dared not go
before a magistrate with my papers, for fear I
should be seized and sold down the river before any
thing could be done. I felt that every man's hand
would be against me. ' O ! my God ! hast Thou
forsaken me ? ' I was tempted to inquire, in the
anguish that overwhelmed my soul.
" One thing was clear; my papers must never be
surrendered to Master Amos. I told my wife I
had not seen them since I left Louisville; they
G
82 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
might be in the bag, or they might be lost. At all
events I determined not to see them, and hinted to
my wife that the best thing to be done was for her
to obtain possession of them, if she could, and keep
me in profound ignorance as to the manner in which
they were disposed of; so that I might be able to
say with truth that the packet had disappeared from
my carpet bag, and I could not tell where it was.
It was a case in which I thought it no wrong to
meet guile with guile.
" The next morning, at the blowing of the horn,
I went to find out Master Amos. I found him
sitting on a stile, and as I drew near enough for
him to recognise me, he shouted out a. rough
welcome in his own style, ' Why, halloa, Sie ! is
that you ? Got back, eh ! Why, you old I'm
glad to see you.' The blank must be left to the
imagination of the reader, as it would scarcely be
proper to fill itup. After uttering some coarse expres-
sions, ' Why,' he continued, ' you're a regular black
gentleman.' He surveyed me from head to foot
with an appreciative grin, and then proceeded with
his remarks, < Well, boy, how's your master? Isaac
says you want to be free. Want to be free, eh ! I
think your master treats you pretty hard though ;
six hundred and fifty dollars don't come so easy in
old Kentuck. How does he ever expect you to
raise all that ? It's too much, boy. It's too much.'
CHAPTER VIII, 83
In the conversation that followed I discovered that
my wife was right. Riley had no idea of letting me
off, and supposed I could contrive to raise six
hundred and fifty as easily as one hundred dollars.
" Master Amos soon asked me if I had not a
paper for him. I told him I had one when I left
Maryland; but the last time I saw it was at
Louisville, and now it was not in my bag, and I
could not tell him what had become of it. He sent
me back to the landing to see if it had been dropped
on the way. Of course I had no intention of find-
ing it, and came back and told him it had not been
dropped in the path, or if it had some one might
have picked it up. He made no stir about it ; for
he had his own purposes to serve by keeping me at
work for himself, and regarded the whole as a trick
of his brother's to get money out of me, looking
upon it as a sharp and clever act. All he said about
the loss of the packet was, ' Well, boy, bad luck
happens to everybody sometimes.'
" But lightly as he treated it, I was in a frenzy of
grief at the base trick and the irremediable wrong
that had been practised towards me. I had supposed
that I should now be free to start out and gain the
other hundred dollars, which would discharge my
obligations to my owner, and set me free from the
curse of slavery. But I found that I was to begin
again with my old labours, and the coveted blessing
g 2
84 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
was as far off as ever. Deeply and painfully as I
felt the disappointment, it was useless to give ex-
pression to my feelings, and I went about my work
with as quiet a mind as I could, resolved to trust in
God, watch and pray for another opportunity, and
never despair."
Chapter ix.
A TERRIBLE TRIAL, AND A PROVIDENTIAL
DELIVERANCE.
or about a year things
went on in the ordinary
way with Josiah, Mas-
ter Amos frequently
joking with him con-
cerning the six hundred
and fifty dollars, and
saying that his brother kept on writ-
ing to know why Josiah did not send
him something towards it. But
Mr. Amos had no desire to play into
the hands of his brother ; he was
glad enough to getjosiah's profitable services to take
care of his stock and people. Neither had he any
desire or intention that Josiah should obtain his
freedom ; and, as events showed, he was meditating
the most effectual measures to prevent it.
One day Master Amos suddenly informed Josiah
that his son, also named Amos, a young man about
86 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
twenty-one years of age, was going down the river
to New Orleans with a flat-boat laden with produce,
and he, Josiah, was to accompany him. This
intimation was enough. He knew at once that the
intention was to sell him down South, and his heart
sank within him at the near prospect of such a fatal
blight to all his hopes. With indescribable misery,
nearly approaching to despair, he made ready to go
on board the flat-boat; but there was one thing
that seemed to him important. He requested his
wife to sew up his manumission paper, which she
had carefully hidden, in a piece of cloth, and to sew
that again round his person. Having possession
of it might possibly be the means of saving him,
and he resolved not to neglect anything that offered
the smallest chance of escape from the fearful fate
that threatened him.
Josiah never rightly understood the true reason of
this movement on the part of Master Amos. He
knew that it grew out of a frequent interchange of
letters between the two brothers. But whether it
was agreed upon by the brothers, as a compromise
of their rival claims, to sell Josiah, and divide the
proceeds, or whether Master Amos, in fear of his
running away, had resolved to dispose of him for
his own profit, he never ascertained. The inten-
tion to sell him to the South was clear enough, and
it was a fearful blow to the intended victim.
CHAPTER IX. 87
When the time for his departure arrived, Josiah's
wife and children accompanied him to the landing,
where he bade them adieu, with little hope on his
part, or theirs, of ever meeting again in this world.
The boat was manned by three white men, who
had been hired for the trip, and Josiah and his
young master. The cargo consisted of beef, cattle,
pigs, poultry, corn, whiskey, and other articles
from the farm and from some of the neighbouring
estates, which were to be sold, as the boat dropped
down the river with the current, wherever they
could be disposed of to the greatest advantage.
" We were all," said Josiah, " bound to take our
trick at the helm in turn, sometimes under the
direction of the captain, and sometimes on our own
responsibility, as he could not be always awake.
In the daytime there was less difficulty than at
night, when it required some one who knew the
river to avoid sand-bars and snags ; and the captain
was the only person on board who possessed the
requisite knowledge. But whether by day or by
night, as I was the only Negro on board, I was
made to stand three tricks at least to any other
person's one ; so that from being much with the
captain, and frequently thrown upon my own exer-
tions, I learned the art of steering and managing
the boat far better than the rest. I watched the
manoeuvres necessary to shoot by a sawyer, to
88 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
land on a bank, or avoid a snag or a steamboat in
the rapid current of the Mississippi, till I could do
it as well as the captain. After a while he was
attacked by a disease of the eyes : they became
very much inflamed and swollen, and he was soon
rendered totally blind and incapable of performing
his share of duty. I was the person who could
best take his place, and I w r as in fact master of the
boat from that time until our arrival at New
Orleans.
" After the captain became blind we were obliged
to lie by at night, as none of us except himself had
been down the river before. It was necessary to
keep watch all night, to prevent depredations by
the Negroes from the shore, who used sometimes
to attack such boats as ours for the sake of the
provisions on board.
" On our way down the river we stopped at
Vicksburg, and I got permission to visit a planta-
tion a few miles from the town, where some of my
old companions whom I had brought from Ken-
tucky were living. It was the saddest visit I ever
made. Four years in an unhealthy climate, and
under a hard master, had done the ordinary work of
twenty. Their cheeks were hollow with starvation
and disease, and their bodies infested with vermin.
I had scarcely imagined that hell could surpass
the misery they described as their daily portion.
CHAPTER IX. 89
Toiling half naked in malarious marshes, under a
burning, maddening sun, and poisoned by swarms
of mosquitoes and black gnats, they looked for-
ward to death as their only hope of deliverance.
Some of them fairly cried at seeing me there, and
at the thought of the wretched fate which they felt
awaited me. Their worst fears of being sold down
South had been more than realized. I went away
sick at heart ; and to this day the sight of that
wretched group haunts me."
" All nature seemed to feed my gloomy thoughts.
I know not what most men see in voyaging down
the Mississippi. If gay and hopeful, probably much
of beauty and interest. If eager merchants, probably
a golden river freighted with the wealth of nations.
I beheld nothing but portents of woe and despair.
Wretched slave pens, a smell of stagnant waters,
half putrid carcases of horses or oxen floating along,
covered with turkey buzzards or swarms of green
flies, — these are the images with which memory
crowds my mind. My faith in God had almost given
way. I could no longer pray or trust. It seemed as if
He had abandoned me and cast me off forever."
It is not surprising that, yielding himself to such
gloomy fancies and depressing influences, the great
adversary should take advantage of such an oppor-
tunity to suggest evil thoughts, and lead him into
powerful temptation, until he had well nigh com-
go JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
mitted a crime that would have marred his peace
of mind for ever, and given a fearful change to the
whole current of his existence. We will give his
own account of this " terrible temptation, M as he
designated it, in his own language.
" As I paced backwards and forwards on the
deck, during my watch, it may well be believed
that I revolved in my mind many a painful and
passionate thought. After all that I had done for
Isaac and Amos Riley, after all the regard they
had professed for me, such a return as this for my
services, such an evidence of their utter disregard
of my claims upon them, and the intense selfish-
ness with which they were ready to sacrifice me at
any moment to their supposed interest, turned my
blood into gall, and changed me from a lively, and,
I will say, a pleasant-tempered fellow, into a savage,
morose, dangerous slave. I was going not at all
as a lamb to the slaughter ; but I felt myself be-
coming more ferocious every day. As we ap-
proached the place where the iniquity was to be
consummated, and I was to be sold to any ruffianly
master that would give the price demanded for me,
I became more and more agitated with an almost
uncontrollable fury. I said to myself ,' If this is
to be my lot, I cannot survive it long. I am not
so young as those whose wretched condition I have
but just now seen ; and if it has brought them to
CHAPTER IX. gr
such a condition, it will soon kill me. I am to be
taken by my masters and owners, who ought to be
my grateful friends, to a place and a condition
where my life is to be shortened, as well as made
more wretched. Why should I not prevent this
wrong, if I can, by shortening their lives, or those
of their agents, in accomplishing such a detestable
injustice ? I can do the last easily enough. They
have no suspicion of me, and they are at this
moment under my control, and in my power. There
are many ways in which I can despatch them and
escape : and I feel that I should be justified in
availing myself of the first good opportunity. ' J
" These were not thoughts that first flitted across
my mind's eye, and then disappeared. They
fashioned themselves into shapes which grew
larger and more distinct every time they presented
themselves ; and at length my mind was made up
to convert the phanton shadow into a positive
reality.
" I resolved to kill my four companions, take
what money there was in the boat, then scuttle the
craft, and escape to the North. It was a poor plan,
may be, and would very likely have failed, but it
was as well contrived, under the circumstances, as
the plans of murderers usually are; and, blinded
by passion and stung to madness as I was, I could
not see any difficulty about it. One dark, rainy
92 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
night, within a few days' sail of New Orleans, my
hour seemed to have come. I was alone on the
deck : Master Amos and the hands were all asleep
below. I crept down noiselessly, got hold of an
axe, entered the cabin, and looking by the aid of
the dim light there for my victims, my eye fell
upon Master Amos, who was nearest to me. My
hand slid along the axe handle, and I raised it to
strike the fatal blow, — when suddenly the thought
flashed on my mind, 'What ! commit murder ! and
you a Christian ? ' I had not called it murder
before. It was self-defence,— it was preventing
others from murdering me, — it was justifiable, it
was even praiseworthy ! But now, all at once, the
truth burst upon me that it was a crime. I was
going to kill a young man who had done nothing
to injure me, but was only obeying commands
which he could not resist. I was about to lose the
fruit of all my efforts at self-improvement, the good
character I had acquired, and the peace of mind
which God had given me. All this came upon me
instantly, and with a distinctness which almost
made me think I heard it whispered in my ear : and
I believe I even turned my head to listen. I shrunk
back, laid down the axe, and thanked God, as I
iiave done every day since, that I had been saved
from committing murder.
" My feelings were still agitated, but they were
CHAPTER IX. 93
changed. I was filled with shame and remorse for
the design I had entertained, and with the fear that
my companions would detect it in my face, or that
a careless word would betray my guilty thoughts, I
remained on deck all night, instead of rousing one
of the men to relieve me. I was now able to pray,
and it brought sweet composure to my mind when.
I formed the solemn resolution to resign myself to
the will of God, and take, if not with thankfulness,
yet with submission, whatever He might decide
should be my lot. I felt that it was better to die
with a Christian's hope and a quiet conscience,
than to live with the incessant recollection of a
deadly crime that would destroy the value of life, and
under the weight of a secret that would crush out
all the satisfaction that might be expected from
freedom and every other blessing.
" It was long before I quite recovered my self-
control and serenity. But I believe that no one,
except those to whom I have told the story myself,
ever suspected me of entertaining such thoughts
for one moment."
Resolving to put his trust in God, and commit
his way unto Him, Josiah left events to the disposal
of His Providence ; and the Lord wonderfully
interposed for his deliverance from the great evil
which threatened him, and which appeared to be
inevitable. In a few days after the circumstances
94 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
occurred which are related above, the boat with the
remains of its cargo arrived at New Orleans •
This was soon disposed of, the men paid off and
discharged, and nothing was left but to dispose of
Josiah, break up the boat, according to usage, and
sell the materials. There was no longer any dis-
guise about the manner in which Josiah was to be
dealt with. He was to be sold. Master Amos
acknowledged that such were the instructions which
had been given to him, and he set about fulfilling
them. Several planters came to the boat to look
upon the chattel that was to be disposed of. He
was sent off on hasty errands, that they might see
how he could run; his points were canvassed as
those of a horse would have been, and his various
faculties and merits described, that his value as a
domestic animal might be enhanced. Master Amos
had talked with seeming kindness about getting
josiah a good master, who would employ him as a
coachman or a domestic : but as time passed on,
Josiah saw no effort of this kind, but rather a will-
ingness to deal with any purchaser who would give
the price, no matter who or what he might be.
Josiah tried all means to move the heart of his
young master, beseeching him with tears and
groans not sell him away from his wife and chil-
dren whom he had left behind. He dwelt on the
services he had rendered to the father, and called
CHAPTER IX. 95
to remembrance a thousand kind things he had
done for the youth personally. He described the
wretched condition of the slaves he had seen near
Vicksburg, and begged that he might not be
given over to a like wretched fate.
" Sometimes," said Josiah, " he would shed tears
himself, and say he was sorry for me. But still I
saw his purpose was unchanged. He now kept
out of my way as much as possible. His con-
science evidently troubled him. He knew he was
doing a cruel and wicked thing, and wanted to
escape from thinking about it. I followed him up
hard, for I felt that I was supplicating for my life.
I fell down and clung to his knees in entreaties.
Sometimes, when I pressed him too closely, he
would curse and strike me. May God forgive him !
And yet it was not all his fault. He was made
hard-hearted and cruel by the accursed relation of
slave-master and slave. To him I was property,
— not a man, not a father, not a husband. And
the laws of self-interest, not of humanity and love,
bore sway."
At length everything was wound up but this
single affair. Josiah was to be sold the next day,
and Master Amos to set off on his return in a
steamboat, at six o'clock in the afternoon. Josiah
could not sleep that night because of the thoughts
that troubled him. And now occurred one of those
96 josiah : the maimed fugitive.
sudden, marked interpositions of Providence, by
which in a moment the whole current of a man's
life is changed ; one of those slight and, at first,
unappreciated contingencies, by which the faith
that man's extremity is God's opportunity is kept
alive. God had heard, and God was answering,,
the prayers which in his anguish and despair
Josiah had sent up to Him. A little before day-
light Master Amos called him, and told him he felt
sick. " Little did I think then," said he, " how
much my future was bound up in those few words.
I advised him to lie down again, thinking the sick-
ness would soon pass off. Before long he felt
worse, and it soon became evident that the river
fever was upon him. He became rapidly very ill,
and by eight o'clock in the morning was utterly
prostrate. The tables were now turned. I was
no longer mere property, no longer a brute beast
to be bought and sold : but his only friend in the
midst of strangers who cared not for him. How
different now was his tone from what it had been
the day before ! He was now the supplicant. A
poor, terrified object, afraid of death, and writhing
with pain, there lay the late arbiter of my destiny.
How earnestly he besought me to forgive him !
1 Stick to me, Sie ! Stick to me, Sie ! Don't
leave me ! O, don't leave me ! I'm sorry I was.
going to sell you.'
CHAPTER IX. 97
" Sometimes he would say he had only been joking,
and never really intended to sell me. But I knew
better than that. He entreated me to despatch
matters, sell the flat-boat, in which all along we
had been living, for what I could get for it, and
get him and his trunk, containing the proceeds
of the trip, on board the steamer as quick as
possible. I attended to all his requests, and by
twelve o'clock that day he was in one of the cabins
of the steamer appropriated to sick passengers.
O, my God ! how my heart sang jubilees of praise
to Thee, as the steamboat swang loose from the
levee, and breasted the mighty tide of the Missis-
sippi ! Away from this land of bondage and death !
Away from misery and despair ! Once more exult-
ing hope possessed me. This time, I thought, if I
do not open my way to freedom, may God never
give me the chance again !
" Before we had proceeded many hours on our
voyage, a change for the better appeared in my
young master. The refreshing air on the river in
a measure revived him : and well it was for him
that such was the case. Short as his illness had
been, the fever had raged like a fire, and he was
already near death. I watched and nursed him
like a mother, for all remembrance of personal
wrong was obliterated at sight of his peril.
His eyes followed me in entreaty wherever I
H
98 josiah : the maimed fugitive.
moved. His strength was so entirely gone at one
time, that he was unable to speak or move a limb>
and could only indicate his wish for a teaspoonful
of gruel, or something to moisten his parched
throat, by a feeble motion of his lips. I tended
him carefully and constantly. Nothing else could
have saved his life. It hung by a thread for a long
time. We were twelve days in reaching home, for
the water was low at that season — particularly in
the Ohio River, into which we entered after travel-
ling about eleven hundred miles up the muddy
Mississippi. When we arrived at our landing-place
he was still unable to speak, and could only be
moved upon a litter. Something of this sort, with a
sheet over it, was soon fixed up, on which he could
be carried to the house, which was five miles off;
and I procured a party of the slaves belonging to
the plantation to form relays for this purpose. As
we approached the house, the surprise of its in-
mates at seeing me back again, and their perplexity
to imagine what I was bringing along with such a
party, were extreme. But the matter was soon
explained, and the grief of father and mother, and
sister and brothers, made itself seen and heard.
Loud and long were the lamentations bestowed
upon poor Amos; and, when the family re-
covered themselves a little, great commenda-
tions were bestowed upon me for the care I had
CHAPTER IX. 99
taken of him and the property he had in his
charge.
" Although we reached home by the ioth of July,
it was not until the middle of August that Master
Amos was well enough to leave his chamber. To
do him justice, he manifested strong gratitude
towards me. Almost his first words, after recovering
his strength sufficiently to talk, were in commenda-
tion of my conduct. ' If I had sold him/ he said,
* I should have died !' On the rest of the family no
permanent impression seemed to have been made.
The first few words of praise were all I ever
received. I was set at my old work. Whatever
any merits were, instead of exciting gratitude or
feelings of attachment to me, they seemed only to
enhance my market value. I saw clearly that my
master's only thought was to render me profitable
to himself. From him I had nothing to hope, and I
turned my thoughts first to God as my only helper,
and then to myself and myown energies.
"Before long I felt assured another attempt
would shortly be made to dispose of me. Provi-
dence had signally interfered once to defeat the
nefarious scheme ; but I could not expect another
such extraordinary deliverance. I felt bound, there-
fore, to take the case now into my own hands, and
do all that was in my power to secure myself and
my family from the wicked conspiracy of Isaac and
H 2
100 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Amos Riley against my natural rights, and those
which I had fairly acquired, under even the barbar-
ous laws of slavery, by the money I had paid for
myself. If Isaac had been honest enough to
adhere to his bargain, I would have fulfilled mine,,
and paid him all that, I had promised. But his
attempt to kidnap and sell me again, after having
pocketed three-fourths of my market value, was
sufficient in my judgment to absolve me from all
obligation to pay him any more, or to continue in>
a position that left me exposed to the machinations
of himself and his equally unscrupulous brother* 1 *
Chapter x„-
OFF BY THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.
uring the few bright
and hopeful days
Josiah had spent in
the free state of Ohio,
^ " while on the preach-
ing tour described in a preced-
ing chapter, he had learnt much
of the course pursued by fugi-
tives from the slave land, and
had become acquainted with
some of the benevolent men
engaged in helping them on their way — the station-
masters on the " Underground Railway." Canada
was often spoken of in his hearing as the sure
refuge from pursuit ; and that promised land now
became the subject of his frequent thoughts, and
the desire of his longing heart. He knew that
great toils and perils lay between him and the home
of freedom to which his hopes were directed,
enough to daunt the stoutest heart ; " but the fire
behind me," he said, "was too hot and too fierce
102 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
to allow me to consider them." He knew the
North Star. " Blessed be God," he said, " for set-
ting it in the heavens ! Like the Star of Bethle-
hem, it announced where salvation lay." He
thought of it as the God-given guide to the land
of promise beneath its light, and he knew that it
had led thousands of his poor, hunted brethren to
freedom and blessedness.
Josiah felt assured that he could follow this guide
through forest, stream, and field. He was conscious
that there was energy enough in his own breast to
contend with privation and danger; and had he
been an untrammelled man, knowing no tie of
husband or father, all difficulties would have been
comparatively light in such an undertaking.- But
he had a wife and four dear children : how should
he provide for them ? Leave them behind ?
Abandon them ? No : he could not even for the
blessed boon of freedom ! They, too, must go.
They must share with him the life of liberty which
he was resolved to achieve!
After much thought and prayer he devised and
matured a plan of escape. And it was not until he
had done this that he communicated his intention
to his wife. She was overwhelmed with terror.
" Poor thing ! " said Josiah, " she had not suffered
the bitterness of my lot, nor felt the same longing
for deliverance. She was a poor, ignorant, un-
CHAPTER X. 103
reasoning slave-woman. With a woman's instinct
she clung to home. She knew nothing of the wide
world beyond, and her imagination peopled it with
horrors. We should die in the wilderness, — we
should be hunted down with bloodhounds, — we
should be brought back and whipped to death.
Such were the terrors that filled her mind. With
tears and supplications she besought me to remain
at home contented ; and it was for a long time in
vain that I explained to her our liability to be torn
asunder at any moment, the horrors of the slavery
I had lately seen in the South, and the happiness
we might enjoy together in a land of freedom."
He prevailed at length over his wife's scruples
and fears. He told her, after much argument and
persuasion had been tried without effect, that,
though it would be a bitter trial to part with her,
he would nevertheless be compelled to do it, rather
than remain to be sold to the South, and linger out
a wretched existence in the hell he had lately visited.
He would take all the children with him except the
youngest; that he would leave with her. She wept
and entreated ; but, finding him resolute, at length
yielded. " Exhausted and almost maddened," he
said, " I left her in the morning to go to my work
for the day. Before I had gone far, I heard her
voice calling me, and waiting till she came up, she
said, at last, she would go with me. Blessed relief!
104 JOSIAH I THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
My tears of joy flowed faster than hers of
grief. "
Josiah's cabin was situated near the landing place
at the river ; which was a favourable circumstance,
as it would facilitate his getting away when the
time came. The plantation extended the whole
five miles from the house down to the river. It
comprised several farms, of all which Josiah was the
overseer, so that he was, ordinarily, riding about
from one to the other every day. His eldest boy
was at the great house waiting on Master Amos ;
the other children were all at home with their
mother.
The chief difficulty that weighed upon Josiah's
mind about getting away was connected with the
two youngest children. One was three, the other
two years old ; and of course both of them would
have to be carried all the way, a journey of many
hundreds of miles. Both were stout and heavy ;
and the mother declared that Josiah would certainly
break down with the burden of them before he got
five miles away. To obviate this difficulty, he re-
solved to get accustomed to the exercise of bearing
them. He therefore caused his wife to make a
strong knapsack of tow-cloth, large enough to hold
them both, and arranged with strong straps to go
round the shoulders and sit easily on the back.
This done, every night for some hours he practised
CHAPTER X. 105
carrying them about, to test his own strength and ac-
custom the children to submit to the constraint. It
was fine fun for them ; and he found to his great joy
that he was soon able to manage them with ease,
and bear them for hours together without fatigue.
At length the appointed time arrived. It was
Saturday night. Sunday was a holiday. On Mon-
day and Tuesday Josiah was to be away on the farms
most distant from the house. Thus all was favour-
able ; several days would probably elapse before
he would be missed, and by that time he would
have got a good start ahead. One thing remained
to be done : he must obtain the master's permission
for little Tom to visit his mother. About sun-down
on Saturday he went up to the great house to re-
port his work, and then seemingly started off for
home. But appearing to recollect something he
had forgotten, he turned back in a sort of careless
manner, and said, " O Master Amos, Tom's mother
wants to know if you won't let him come down for
a few days, that she may mend his clothes and fix
him up a little ?" " Yes, boy, yes, he can go. 1 '
" Thankee, Master Amos ; goodnight. The Lord
bless you !"
" I could not," said Josiah, " help throwing a
good deal of emphasis into my farewell. And I
could not refrain from an inward chuckle at the
thought — How long a good night that will be ! The
106 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE,
coast was now all clear ; and as I trudged along
home, with my boy by my side, I took an affection-
ate look at the familiar objects on my way. Strange
to say, sorrow mingled with my joy: but no man I
think can live anywhere long without feeling some
attachment to the soil on which he labours. "
It was about the middle of September, on a
moonless night, when Josiah and his family com-
menced their exodus from the slave land. Josiah
had prevailed upon a fellow slave to put them
across the river in a skiff. All sat still as death in
the boat ; and when they were in the middle of the
stream, the poor fellow said in a whisper, " It wilL
be the end of me if this is ever found out : but you
won't be brought back alive, Sie, will you ?" " Not
if I can help it," was the reply ; and Josiah glanced
at the pistols and bowie-knife which he had pro-
vided for the occasion, and placed about his
person. "And if they're too many for you, and
you get seized, you'll never tell my part in this
business?" "Not if I am shot through like a
sieve." " That's all," said he, " and God help you."
They soon landed on the Indiana shore, and bade
farewell — a grateful farewell — to their friend in the
skiff, who at once returned to the Kentucky shore ;
Josiah watching his humble friend until the dark-
ness seemed to swallow him up. Before daylight
should come on, they must put as many miles as
CHAPTER X.
107
possible between them and their former home. They
had none to look to for aid but God : for that part of
the country, though a free state, was hostile to the
fugitive, and always full of slave-hunters. Fervently
did they pray to Him who was their only trust, as they
trudged on cautiously and steadily as fast as the
darkness and the feebleness of some of the party
would allow. Even then, Josiah's wife, terrified
with her fears, implored him to return.
For a fortnight they continued their weary jour-
ney, keeping to the road in the night, but hiding
whenever a vehicle or horseman approached ; and
during the day lying concealed in the woods, and.
sometimes in the dense and deadly swamps. By
this time their provisions were giving out, and two
days before they reached Cincinnati, they were
quite exhausted. " All night the children cried
with hunger," Josiah said; " and my poor wife
loaded me with reproaches for bringing them into
such misery. It was a bitter thing to hear them
cry ] and God knows I greatly needed encourage-
ment myself. My limbs were weary, and my back
and shoulders raw with the burden I carried. A
dread of detection constantly pursued me, and I
would often start out of my sleep in terror, expect-
ing to find the dogs and the slave-hunters after me.
Had I been alone I would have borne the starva-
tion cheerfully ; but something must be done for
io8
josiah: the maimed fugitive.
the wife and children. It was necessary to run the
risk of exposure by daylight upon the road."
Josiah left his hiding place and took to the road,
proceeding southward to lull the suspicions that
A SWAMP SCENE.
would be aroused if he were seen going the other
way. He came to a house, and a furious dog
rushed out upon him, soon followed by the master.
Josiah requested the man to sell him a little bread
CHAPTER X. IOg
and meat. The surly reply was, " No, I have
nothing for niggers." At the next house he came
to he succeeded no better at first. The man of the
house replied to him as surlily as the other : but
the wife inside, hearing the conversation, remon..
strated, and said to her husband, " How can you
treat any human being so ? If a dog was hungry,
I would give him something to eat. We have
children, and some day they may need the help of
a friend." The man laughed and told her she
might care for niggers, he wouldn't. The kind-
hearted woman asked Josiah to go in, and gave
him a large plateful of venison and bread. " When
he had put it in his handkerchief, he laid a quarter of"
a dollar on the table to pay for it. She quietly took up
the money and put it in the handkerchief, with more
venison and bread. Josiah felt the hot tears stream-
ing down his cheeks as she said, " God bless you I "
and he hurried away to relieve his starving wife and!
little ones.
The venison being salted, it made them all very
thirsty, and the children began to groan and sigh.
for water. Josiah went cautiously about looking
for some, and came at last to a little rill. He took
a large draft himself, and then tried to carry some
to the rest of the party in his hat. But the hat
was leaky, and the water all ran out before he
could get to them. He then took off both his shoes,,
IIO JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
which, luckily, had no holes in them, rinsed them
out, and filling them with water, carried it to the
thirsty sufferers. They drank it with great delight.
" I have since then," he said, " sat at richly fur-
nished tables in Canada, the United States, and in
England; but never did I see any human beings
relish anything more than my poor famishing little
ones did that refreshing draught out of their father's
shoes."
Two days after, economizing their food, that they
might run no more risks upon the road, they
reached Cincinnati. Before entering the city,
Josiah hid away his wife and children in the bush,
and went on alone to find out friends. This was
soon done, and they welcomed him warmly. Soon
after dusk the whole party were brought in, and
found themselves hospitably cheered and refreshed
by loving friends. Two weeks of exposure to in-
cessant fatigue, anxiety, rain, and chill, made it
indescribably sweet to enjoy once more the comfort
-of rest and shelter.
Those who have read that touching, thrilling
narrative of slave life, given by Mrs. H. B. Stowe
in her " Uncle Tom's Cabin," will know that there
was a noble band of men and women in the border
states, who, trampling on wicked and cruel laws
that made the exercise of humanity to the suffer-
ing a crime, exposed themselves to fines and im-
CHAPTER X. IH
prisonment by succouring and aiding the hunted
fugitives. Who can doubt that the great Master
will say to these noble-souled followers of His, in
the great day? — " Come ye, blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world : for I was an hungred, and
ye gave Me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me
drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me in : naked,
and ye clothed Me : I was sick, and ye visited Me :
I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
Into such benevolent hands Josiah and his family
fell. These good Samaritans received and shel-
tered them, and provided for their welfare until their
strength was recruited ; and then they put them
on their way more than thirty miles in a covered
waggon. This journey was performed in the night;
and in the morning Josiah and his party were left
again to their own resources. They followed the
same course as before, travelling in the night, and
resting, concealing themselves in the woods, by
day. The North Star was their friendly guide, and
at length they arrived at the Scioto River, where,
they had been told, they would strike a military
road made by General Hull in the last war with
Great Britain, and might then safely travel by day.
They came to the road, and entered upon it in high
Ifi JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
spirits ; but by this time the provisions they had
brought with them from Cincinnati were exhausted.
They had relied upon getting their wants supplied
by the way with the little money they had with
them. But they now found to their dismay that
the road was cut through a wilderness, and they
looked in vain for a human habitation. All day they
travelled without seeing one, and at night lay down
hungry, weary, and dispirited. The wolves were
howling around them, greatly terrifying the children
and their mother, and they obtained but little rest.
In the morning they divided among them the last
morsel of food that was left. It was only a little
fragment of dried beef, not enough to satisfy their
hunger, but sufficient to produce intolerable thirst.
Then they started on their day's weary journey.
The road was rough. The underbrush tore their
clothes and exhausted their strength ; trees that
had been blown down blocked the way, and they
were faint with hunger, and no prospect of relief
before them. But they struggled along, Josiah
with the two babes on his back, his wife aiding as
she could the two other little children to climb
over the fallen trunks and force themselves through
the briers. " Suddenly," he said, " as I was plod-
ding along a little ahead of the rest, I heard them
call me, and turning round saw my wife prostrate
on the ground. J Mother's dying,' cried Tom ; and
CHAPTER X. 113
when I reached her it seemed really so. From
sheer exhaustion she had fallen, and fainted in sur-
mounting a log. For some minutes no sign of life
was manifest; but after a time she opened her
eyes, and after a long rest partly recovered her
strength, and again we went bravely on our way.
I cheered the sad group with hopes I was far from
sharing myself. For the first time I was nearly
ready to abandon myself to despair. Starvation in
the wilderness was the doom that stared me in the
face. Bat again, " Man's extremity was God's
opportunity. "
As they plodded on their weary way, and the
evening was advancing, they perceived some per-
sons in the distance apparently approaching them.
They were instantly on the alert to conceal them-
selves, as they could not expect to meet any who
were friendly in that vicinity. But when the
strangers came near enough to be seen distinctly,
it was discovered that they were Indians with
packs on their shoulders. Supposing that the
Indians could not but have seen him and his party,
Josiah resolved to act boldly, and walked up to
them. They were bent down with their burdens,
and it seems had not raised their heads until now ;
for as soon as they saw Josiah and his companions
they looked frightened for a moment, and then,
giving utterance to a peculiar howl, turned round
1
H4 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
and ran away as fast as they could ; and Josiah's
party heard their howling as they scampered off
for a mile or more.
Josiah's wife, who was a poor timid creature,
was frightened too, and thought they were merely-
running back to collect a larger party, and would
then return and murder them all ; and she was
disposed to turn back. Josiah combatted her fears,
and told her that the Indians they saw were already
sufficiently numerous to do them evil, if they were
so disposed, without further help ; and that, as for
turning back, he had had quite too much of the
road behind them already, and it would be very
ridiculous for both parties to run away from each
other. They advanced cautiously, and soon dis-
covered Indians peeping at them from behind the
trees, and then dodging out of sight as soon as
they saw that they were observed. Soon after they
came in sight of several wigwams ; when a fine-
looking stately Indian came forward with his arms
folded, and waited for their approach. He was
evidently the chief; and saluting them civilly and
gracefully, he spoke to his young men who were
scattered about, and made them come forward and
give up their foolish fears. Then curiosity began
to prevail. Each one wanted to touch the children,
who had become very shy with their life in the
woods; and as the children shrunk away from the
CHAPTER X. 115
touch of the Indians, they also would jump back,
as if they thought the little ones would bite them.
A little while, however, sufficed to put them at
their ease, and make them understand whither
Josiah and his party were going, and what they
needed. With great alacrity they set to work and
provided for the wants of their unexpected guests,
who were bountifully entertained with such food as
the wigwams afforded ; and then, after a hearty
and welcome meal, a comfortable wigwam was
appropriated to them for their night's rest.
A pleasant evening spent among the Indians
was followed by a night of unbroken and refresh-
ing sleep ; and they were delighted to understand
from their hosts in the morning that they were now not
more than twenty-five or thirty miles from Lake Erie,
on the opposite shore of which lay the promised land
of freedom to which they were bound. The Indians
they found to be an encampment of about twenty-
five in number, besides children. After ministering
to their refreshment again before they resumed
their journey, the chief directed some of his young
men to conduct them to the place where they might
turn on the most direct route to their destination, and
parted from them with all possible kindness. Josiah
was very grateful to these hospitable Indians ; and yet
more thankfulto Him whohadthusmade provision for
them in the desert in a manner altogether unexpected .
1 2
Il6 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
During the day they had to pass a stream, which
Josiah forded first by the help of a pole, and then
succeeded in carrying the children across, the wife
fording it like himself. " At this time," he said,
" the skin was worn from my back to an extent
almost equal to the size of my knapsack/' One
more night was passed in the woods ; and in the
course of the next forenoon the party emerged upon
the wide plain without trees which lies to the south
and west of Sandusky city. The houses of the
city were plainly in sight ; and at about a mile
distant from the lake Josiah concealed his wife and
children in the bush, and ventured forward to re-
connoitre.
" I was soon attracted," said Josiah, " by a house
on the left, between which and a small coasting
vessel a number of men were passing and repass-
ing with great activity. Promptly deciding to ap-
proach them, I drew near; and scarcely had I
come within hailing distance, when the captain of
the schooner cried out, " Hallo there, man ! do you
want to work? 5 ' Yes, Sir,' shouted I. ' Come
along, come along : I'll give you a shilling an hour.*
(Sixpence English money.) ' Must get off with this
wind/ As I came near, he said, observing my
shortened arms, ' O, you can't work, you're crippled/
c Can't I,' said I ; and in a minute I had got hold
of a bag of corn, and followed the gang in empty-
CHAPTER X. 117
ing it into the hold. I took my place in the line
of labourers next to a coloured man, and soon got
into conversation with him. l How far is it to
Canada?' He gave me a peculiar look, and at
once I saw he knew all. ' Want to go to Canada ?
Come along with us then. Our captain's a fine
fellow. We're going to Buffalo.' ' Buffalo ! How
far is that from Canada ? ' ' Don't you know, man ?
Just across the river.' I now opened my mind frankly
to him, and told him about my wife and children.
* I'll speak to the captain,' said he. He did so ; and
soon after the captain took me aside, and said, ' The
Doctor says you want to go to Buffalo with your
family.' ' Yes, Sir.' * Well, why not go with me ?'
was his frank reply. ' Doctor says you've got a
family.' * Yes, Sir.' ' Where do you stop ?'
4 About a mile back.' c How long have you been
here ?' ' No time,' I answered, after a moment's
hesitation. * Come, my good fellow, tell us all
about it. You're running away, ain't you ?' I
saw he was a friend, and opened my heart to him.
* How long will it take you to get ready ? ' ' I'll
be here in half-an-hour, Sir.' * Well, go along, and
get them.' Off I started : but, before I had run
fifty feet, he called me back. ' Stop,' said he, 6 you
go on getting the grain in. When we get off, I'll
lay to over opposite that island, and send a boat
back. There's a lot of regular nigger-catchers in
n8 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
the town below, and they might suspect, if yoa
brought your party out of the bush by daylight.
Let them stay there awhile.' I worked away with
a will. Soon the two or three hundred bushels of
corn were aboard, the hatches fastened down, the
anchor raised, and the sails spread and hoisted.
" I watched the vessel with interest as she left
her moorings. Away she went before the free
breeze. Already she seemed beyond the spot at
which the captain agreed to lay to, and still she
flew along. My heart sunk within me. So near
deliverance, and again to have my hopes blasted :
again to be cast upon my own feeble resources. I
felt as if they had been making a mock of my
misery. The sun had sunk to rest, and the purple
and gold of the west were fast fading into grey.
Suddenly, however, as I gazed with weary heart
and intense anxiety, the schooner swung round into
the wind, the sails flapped, and she stood motion-
less. A moment more, and I saw a boat lowered
from the stern, and with steady stroke make for the
point on which I stood. I felt then, with intense
joy, that the hour of my deliverance had come. On
she came, and in a few moments swept beautifully
up upon the beach.
" My black friend and two other sailors jumped
out, and we started off at once for my wife and
children. To my horror, they had gone from
CHAPTER X. I ig
the place where I had left them. I was overpowered
with the fear that they had been discovered and
carried off. There was no time to lose, and the
men told me I would have to go alone. Just at the
point of despair, however, I stumbled on one of
the children, and soon discovered the rest. My
wife, I found, alarmed at my long absence, had
given up all for lost, and supposed I had fallen into
the hands of the enemy. When she heard my
voice mingled with those of the sailors, she thought
my captors were leading me back to make me dis-
cover my family ; and in the extremity of her terror
she had tried to hide herself by plunging deeper
into the bush. I had hard work to satisfy her.
Our long habits of concealment and anxiety had
rendered her suspicious of every one. For a time
her agitation was great. This, however, was soon
over, and the kindness of my companions did much
to facilitate such a result.
" And now we were off to the boat. It required
but little time to embark our baggage — one con-
venience, at least, of possessing nothing. The
men bent their backs with a will, and headed
steadily for the light hung at the schooner's mast.
I was praising God in my soul. Three hearty cheers
welcomed us as we reached the vessel ; and never
to my dying day shall I forget the shout of the
captain. He was a Scotchman. ' Coom up on
120 JOSIAH I THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
deck, and clop your wings and craw like a rooster ;
you're a free nigger now as sure as the deevil.'
Round went the schooner ; the wind plunged into
her sails as though inoculated with the common
feeling, and the water, seething and hissing,
rapidly passed her sides. Man and nature, and
more than all, I felt, the God of man and nature,
who breathes charity and love into the heart, and
maketh the winds His ministers, were with us.
My happiness, that night, rose at times to positive
pain. Unnerved by so sudden a change from desti-
tution and danger to such kindness, and such a
blessed sense of security, I wept like a child.
61 The next evening we reached Buffalo ; but it
was too late to cross the river that night. % You
see those trees ? ' said the noble-hearted captain
the next morning, pointing to a group in the dis-
tance ; * they grow on free soil, and as soon as your
feet touch that you are a man. I want to see you
go and be a free man. I am poor myself, and
have nothing to give you : I only sail the boat for
wages ; but I'll see you across.' ' Here, Green,'
said he to a ferryman, ' what will you take this
man and his family over for? — he's got no money.'
' Three shillings.' The captain took a dollar out
of his pocket and gave it me. Never shall I forget
the spirit in which he spoke. He put his hand
on my head, and said, ' Be a good fellow, won't
CHAPTER X. 121
you? ' I felt streams of emotion running down in
electric courses from head to foot. l . Yes,* said I,
'I'll use my freedom well: I'll give my soul to
God.' He stood waving his hat as we pushed off
for the opposite shore, God bless him ! God bless
him eternally ! Amen !
" It was the 28th of October, 1830, in the morn-
Ing, when my feet first touched the Canada shore.
I threw myself on the ground, rolled in the sand,
took up handfuls of it, and kissed it rapturously ;
and I danced around until in the eyes of some
beholders I passed for a madman, ' He's some
crazy fellow,' said a Colonel Warren, who happened
to be there. ' O, no, Master ! Don't you know ?
I'm free ! I'm free ! I'm free ! ' He burst into a
shout of laughter. ' Well/ said he ; ' I never knew
freedom make a man roll in the sand in such a
fashion ! ' Still, I could not control myself. I
hugged and kissed my wife and children, and went
on, no doubt, most extravagantly, until the first
exuberant burst of feeling was over. None there
could understand as I did all the fearful depths of
misery I had left behind me, and from which,
through God's help and blessing, I was now free
for ever ! "
Chapter xi.
BECOMES A STUDENT UNDER A YOUNG PROFESSOR.
osiah was now a free-
man. But he was a
stranger in a strange
land, and he must
needs look about him
for means of .support
for himself and family. He pro-
cured a lodging for the first night
with the remainder of the captain's
dollar, and then began to cast
about to obtain employment. In the course of the
day he heard of a Mr. Hibbard, who was the owner
of a large farm, and of several tenements which he
was in the habit of hiring out to labourers. To
him Josiah repaired, and soon struck a bargain
with him for employment. He inquired if there
was any house on the farm in which he and his
family could take up their abode. " Yes," said Mr.
Hibbard, and led the way to an old two-story
CHAPTER XI. I23,
shanty, into the lower part of which the pigs ha&
found their way, and made it their home. Josiah
and his family speedily expelled these occupants,
and set about making it fit for a better class of
tenants. " With the aid of hoe and shovel, hot
water and a mop, I got the floor into a tolerable
condition," said he, " but it took until midnight ;,
and only then did I rest from my labour."
The next day he brought his family to their new
home ; and although there was literally nothing
to receive and welcome them but bare walls and
floors, they were all in a state of great delight ; for
it was, with all its defects, the home of the free,.
and far better than a log cabin with dirt floor
in the slave-land. He got a quantity of clean
straw, and by confining it with logs in the corners.
of the room, and laying it pretty thick, made beds-
upon which all of them reposed luxuriously after
their long fatigues.
But a new trial came which had not been anti-
cipated. In consequence of the exposures and
privations they had endured, Josiah's wife and all
the children fell sick. During the time of their
flight they had all been sustained by the excitement
connected with it ; but the reaction came, and a.
long sickness ensued, from which some of them,
barely escaped with their lives.
Josiah, by his attention and industry, gained at
124 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
once the favour and respect of his employer and
his wife, and soon was in a position to obtain some
of the comforts of life, the necessaries of fuel and
food being abundant. He remained with Mr,
Hibbard three years, working sometimes for wages,
sometimes on shares, and managed in that time to
become the possessor of some pigs, a cow, and a
horse. Thus his condition gradually improved,
and he felt that his toils and sacrifices for freedom
had not been in vain.
He soon began to labour in another vocation.
A fugitive from Maryland took up his abode in the
same neighbourhood, and made it known all about
that Josiah had been a preacher in the slave-land
from which he had fled. This led to his being
frequently called upon, not only by the blacks but
by the white people, " to speak to them on their
duty, responsibilities, and immortality ; and on
their obligations to their Master and Saviour, and
to themselves." " It may seem strange to many,"
said Josiah, " that a man so ignorant as myself, un-
able to read, and having heard so little as I had of
religion, natural or revealed, should be able to
preach acceptably to persons who had enjoyed
greater advantages than myself: but observation
upon what passes without, and prayerful reflection
upon what passes within a man's heart, will some-
times give him a larger growth in grace than is
CHAPTER XL 125
imagined by some devoted adherents of creeds, or
those self-confident followers of Christ who call Him,
c Lord, Lord,' but do not the things which He
says."
Mr. Hibbard was kind enough to send Josiah's
eldest boy, Tom, to school ; and the boy learned to^
read fluently and well. This was a great advantage
to both : for Josiah used to get his son to read to*
him much in the Bible, especially on Sunday morn-
ings ; and thus he was able to commit to memory
many verses, and even chapters, of Holy Scripture.
How he learned at length to read himself, I will
tell in his own words.
" One beautiful summer Sabbath I rose early,,
and called Tom to come and read to me.' ' Where-
shall I read, father?' ' Anywhere, my son,' I an-
swered, for I knew not how to direct him. He
opened upon Psalm ciii. ' Bless the Lord, O my
soul : and all that is within me, bless His holy
name,' &c. As he read this beautiful outpouring
of gratitude, which I now heard for the first time,
my heart melted within me. I recalled in my
thoughts the whole current of my life ; and as I"
remembered the dangers and afflictions from which
the Lord had delivered me, and compared my
present condition with what it had been, not only
my heart, but my eyes overflowed, and I could
neither check nor conceal the emotion which over-
126 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
powered me. The words, ' Bless the Lord, O my
soul/ with which the Psalm begins and ends, were
all I needed, or could use, to express the fulness of
my thankful heart. When he had finished, Tom
turned to me, and inquired, ' Father, who was
David V He had observed my emotion, and added,
* He writes pretty, don't he?' He repeated the
question ; but it was one I was unable to answer.
I had never heard of David, but could not bear to
acknowledge my ignorance to my own child. So
I answered evasively. ' He was a man of God, my
son.' ' I suppose so,* said he ; ' but I want to
know something more about him. Where did he
live ? What did he do ?' As he went on question-
ing me, I saw it was in vain to attempt to escape,
and so I told him frankly I did not know. ' Why,
father,' said he, ' can't you read ?' This was a
worse question than the other, and if I had any
pride in me at the moment it took it all out of me
pretty quick. It was a direct question, and must
have a direct answer ; so I told him at once I could
not. ' Why not V said he. ' Because I never had
an opportunity to learn, nor anybody to teach me.'
'Well, you can learn now, father.' ' No, my son,
I am too old, and have not time enough. I must
work all day, or you would not have enough to eat
or wear.' ' Then you might do it at night.' ' But
still there is nobody to teach me. I can't afford to
A CANADIAN FOREST.
CHAPTER XI. 129
pay anybody for it, and, of course, no one can do
it for nothing.' * Why, father, VII teach you. I
can do it, I know. And then you'll know
much more that you can talk better, and preach
better.'
" I was greatly moved by this conversation with
Tom. It was no slight mortification to think of
-.structed by a child twelve years old. Yet
a true desire to learn, for the good it would do
] mind, conquered the shame, and I agreed to
try. But I could not preach that day; being too
much wrought upon by the conversation with Tom.
I passed the Sunday in solitary reflection in the
woods. I was too much engrossed by my thoughts
to return home to dinner, and I spent the w.
day in meditation and prayer. I felt that I
profoundly ignorant, and that I ought to use every
opportunity of improving my mind. I began at
ie to take lessons of Tom, and followed it ip
every evening by the light of a pine knot, or some
:ory bark : which was the only light I could
afford to use. Weeks passed, and my progress was
slow that poor Tom was almost discouraged.
He used to drop asleep sometimes : and then he
would whine over my dulness, till I began to fear
that my age, the daily fatigue, and the dim 1:
uld be effectual preventives of my ever acquiring
the art of reading. But Tom's patience and my
K
I3O JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
perseverance conquered at last, and in the course
of the winter I did really learn to read a little."
The ability to read became very useful to Josiah,
and was diligently improved. He read with avidity
all the books he could obtain by borrowing ; but he
delighted especially in the Bible. It caused him to
comprehend better the depth of ignorance in which
he had been plunged, and to feel more deeply the
oppression under which he had toiled and groaned.
It also made him more anxious than before to do
something for the rescue and elevation of those
who were suffering the same evils he had endured
so long, and render help to those who, like himself,
had fled from the house of bondage.
After three years spent with Mr. Hibbard, Josiah
took service with a Mr. Risely, a man possessing
more elevation of mind and better 'abilities than
his first employer. Here he found himself sur-
rounded by many hundreds of free coloured persons
who had also escaped from the Southern States.
Josiah soon perceived that so much of the ignorance
and inertness engendered by slavery yet clung to
these people, that they were not making the best
of their condition for the benefit of themselves and
their families, and it became a great object with
him to awaken them to a perception of the advan-
tages that were within their reach ; so that, instead
of continuing in perpetuity to work for hire upon
CHAPTER XI. I3I
the lands of others, they might become independent
proprietors themselves.
Mr. Risely assented to the justice of Josiah's
views, and permitted him to call meetings on his
farm, of those who were known to be the most
intelligent among the blacks, that the subject might
be considered and discussed among them. The
result was, that some ten or twelve of them agreed
to invest their earnings in land which they could
call their own, where every tree they felled, and
every bushel of corn they raised, would be for
themselves and their families ; in other words,
where they could secure all the profits of their own
labour.
After due deliberation, Josiah was deputed to
explore the country on behalf of his fellow fugitives,
and find a place eligible for the proposed settlement.
He says, " I set out, accordingly, in the autumn of
1834, and travelled on foot all over the extensive
region between Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron.
When I came to the territory east of Lake St. Clair
and Detroit river, I was strongly impressed with
its fertility, its convenience, and, indeed, its general
superiority for our purposes to any other spot I had
seen. I determined that, as far as I was concerned,
this should be the place ; and so reported to my
associates when I returned home. They were
wisely cautious, however, and sent me off again in
k 2
132 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
the summer, that I might see it at a different season
of the year, and so be better able to judge aright of
its advantages. I found no reason from this
additional survey to change my opinion ; but on
going further towards the head of Lake Erie, I
discovered an extensive tract of Government land^
which for some years had been granted to a
Mr. M'Cormick upon certain conditions, and which
he had rented out to settlers. This land, being-
already cleared to some extent, offered advantages
for the immediate raising of crops, which were not
to be overlooked by persons whose resources were
so limited as ours. We determined to go there
first, for a time, and with the proceeds of our labour
there to make our purchases at the other place ;
which was afterwards called Dawn. This plan was
adopted, and some dozen or more of us settled upon
these lands the following spring, and accumulated
something towards our intended purchases by the
crops of wheat and tobacco we were able to raise.
" I discovered, before long, that M'Cormick had
not complied with the conditions of his grant, and
was not therefore entitled to exact rent from the
settlers. I was advised by Sir John Cockburn, with
whom I communicated, to appeal to the legislature.
This I did ; and we were freed from all rent there-
after so long as we remained on the land. We
continued in this position six or seven years, with
CHAPTER XI. I33
the purpose still in our minds of purchasing the
land at Dawn, as soon as it was in our power to
raise the means."
This purpose was ultimately carried out. Josiah
became acquainted with a Congregational Mis-
sionary, who greatly assisted him in the accomplish-
ment of his plans. This gentleman's name was
Wilson, and to him the fugitives who had settled
in that vicinity became largely indebted, for the
.kind and judicious counsel which he afforded to
them. He wrote on Josiah's behalf to a benevolent
member of the Society of Friends, a Mr. Fuller,
residing near New York ; well known as one who
took a lively interest in the welfare of the coloured
people who had escaped to Canada. This gentleman
was just about to visit England when the matter
was brought to his notice ; and while there he used
his influence with members of the Society of Friends,
in various parts of the country, on behalf of these
fugitives from slavery, and obtained fifteen hundred
dollars in subscriptions for the benefit of Josiah and
his fellow settlers. When this was made known
to them a convention was called, to consider and
decide upon the most advantageous method of
appropriating the money, so as to promote by its
use the benefit of the greatest number of the popu-
lation of Upper Canada.
" I urged the appropriation of this money," said
134 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Josiah, "to the establishment of a manual labour
school, where our children could be taught those
elements of knowledge which are usually the
occupations of a grammar school ; and where the
boys could be taught, in addition, the practice of
some mechanic art, and the girls could also be in-
structed in those domestic arts which are the proper
occupation and ornament of the sex. Such an
establishment would train those who would after-
wards be able to instruct others, and we should
thus gradually become independent of the whites
for our intellectual progress, as we might be also
for our physical prosperity. This was the more
necessary as, in some districts, owing to the
prejudices of the inhabitants, the children of the
blacks were not allowed to share the advantages of
the common school. This plan was therefore
unanimously adopted, and myself and two others
were appointed to select the site for the proposed
establishment. After traversing the country again
for some months, we could find no place more
suitable than that which I had had my eye upon for
several years as offering great advantages for a
permanent settlement ; and it was resolved there-
fore to take up the land at Dawn, which is the place
now called Chatham."
A considerable run of land was bought, and the
money appropriated in the manner resolved upon ;
CHAPTER XI. 135
and the place soon became the centre of a large
population of the fugitive slaves from the Southern
States. In 1842 Josiah removed thither with his
family, having purchased a considerable tract of the
land on his own account. The school was perma-
nently fixed there ; and many other settlements rose
around it, scattered over a territory several hundred
miles in extent, numbering in 1858 upwards of
twenty thousand inhabitants ; all of whom had fled
from the slave-land. " We look to the school,'*
said Josiah, " and the possession of landed property
by individuals, as two great means of securing the
elevation of our oppressed and degraded race to a
participation in the blessings, as they have hitherto
been doomed to share only the miseries and vices,
of civilization. "
Amongst the projects conceived and carried out
by Josiah for the benefit of this coloured com-
munity, in which he had become a kind of patri-
arch and ruler, was the establishment of a saw-
mill. He found the land on which they had settled
covered with a forest of beautiful and noble trees,
some of them of the most valuable kind, such as
black walnut, white wood, &c. The people were
accustomed to cut down these fine trees indiscrimi-
nately, and burn them on the ground, simply to get
rid of them, that they might have the use of the
cleared land for cultivation. Josiah was distressed
136
josiah: the maimed fugitive,
to see such waste of valuable material, and longed
to devise some means of converting this abundant
natural wealth into money, so as to assist in im-
proving* the condition of the people. Full of this
project, he took a journey through the State of
New York and through New England, where he
found that such logs as abounded in Canada, instead
of being burnt, were sawed into planks and boards,
and commanded large prices ; and he was rejoiced
to learn that he could find a ready market for any
amount of the lumber which was being so ignorantly
and recklessly thrown away.
He made known his views and feelings to several
philanthropic gentlemen with whom he met in Eos-
CLEARING LAND.
CHAPTER XI. I37
ton and elsewhere, who saw the reasonableness of
his plans, and kindly furnished him with the means
of starting what proved to be a profitable enter-
prise. He was thus enabled on his return to put
up a substantial saw-mill, and stock it with the
requisite machinery; and he soon had the pleasure
of seeing it in successful operation. " The mill,"
he said, " was not my own property, but belonged
to an association, which established an excellent
manual labour school, where many children of both
sexes have been educated. The school was well
attended from the first by coloured children, and
also by whites and some Indians."
Josiah made frequent journeys to the United
States to dispose of the lumber prepared at the
saw-mill, and met with several adventures which
space does not allow me to narrate. On one occa-
sion, he went to pay the duties on eighty thou-
sand feet of prime black walnut lumber, which he
had disposed of at Boston for forty-five dollars per
thousand. The atrocious Fugitive- slave Law had
just been passed in the States, which made it a
highly penal offence for any person to harbour, or
render aid to, a fugitive slave. " When the cus-
tom-house official presented his bill to me for the
duties on my lumber," said Josiah, " I jokingly
remarked to him that perhaps he would render him-
self liable to trouble if he should have dealings
I38 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
with a fugitive slave ; and if so, I would relieve him
of the trouble of taking my money. ' Are you a
fugitive slave, Sir?' 'Yes, Sir,' said I ; 'and perhaps
you had better not have any dealings with me.' ' I
have nothing to do with that,' said the official ;
c there is your bill : you have acted like a man, and
I deal with you as a man.' The bystanders en-
joyed the scene, and I paid him the money and
took my departure."
All this time he was acting as the pastor and
spiritual adviser of the people by whom he was
surrounded, preaching to them continually on the
Sabbath, and often on the week evenings, in the
humble places of worship which they built for
themselves. And at the same time he was dili-
gently cultivating his own mind, and devoting him-
self to the acquisition of all kinds of useful know-
ledge within his reach. Acquiring the art of read-
ing in the humble manner already described, at the
hands of his own child, he had applied himself to
the use of it with the utmost eagerness. It had
opened to him, as it were, a new world, and he
revelled in the enjoyment which it afforded him.
But most of all he prized this new acquisition for
the increased ability and power with which it
enabled him to minister the word of life to the
ignorant multitudes around him. And the Lord
owned his efforts, and gave him many souls as the
fruit of his toil.
Chapter xii.
HELPS OTHERS ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD,.
r 'FTER he had tasted
the blessings of free-
dom, Josiah's mind
often reverted to the
unhappy ones who
were still groaning in captivity ;..
and he felt it to be his duty to set
free as many as he could from
the horrors and wrongs of
slavery. He thought that manjr
might make their escape as he.
had done, if they had some one to advise them how
to proceed. Prompted by these feelings, he made
more than one visit to the slave-land, at the risk of
his liberty and life, that he might render help to his
enslaved and afflicted brethren.
One day he was preaching to a large number of"
people at Fort Erie, and many coloured people were
present. In the course of his remarks, he endea-
voured to impress upon them the obligations they
140 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
were under — first to God for their own deliverance,
and secondly to their fellow men — to do all that was
in their power to bring others out of bondage. In
the congregation there was a man named James
Lightwood, who, being of an active temperament,
had obtained his own freedom by fleeing to Canada.
But he had never thought of his family and friends
whom he had left behind, so as to do anything to
promote their deliverance, until the time that he
heard Josiah speaking on the subject ; although he
had been free for five years. But that day the sub-
ject was brought home to his heart, and he felt how
remiss and selfish he had been. When the service
was concluded, he sought an interview with Josiah,
and an arrangement was made for further conversa-
tion upon the matter the following week. At the
appointed time he came, and then informed Josiah
where he had come from and to whom he had
belonged : and that he had left behind a dear father
and mother, three sisters, and four brothers. They
were living on a plantation near the city of Mays-
ville, on the Ohio River. He had never, he said, seen
his duty towards them to be so clear and unmistak-
able as he felt it to be then ; and was anxious that
some means should be devised for their early release
from slavery. During the short period of his free-
dom he had accumulated some little property, the
-whole of which he professed himself willing to
CHAPTER XII. I4.T
devote to this object. He had not, he said, had any
rest since the subject had been brought by Josiah's.
preaching before his mind.
Josiah was not able, just then, to devise any likely
plan to fulfil Lightwood's desire ; but in a few days
the man came back again, and the agony which he
seemed to endure on account of his enslaved kin-
dred touched his friend's heart, so that he deter-
mined to do all in his power to help the poor fellow
in this dangerous undertaking. After mature con-
sideration, Josiah came to the conclusion that the
most likely way to insure success was to make the
enterprise his own, and go by himself to the rescue.
Prompt to act when the thing was decided upon,
Josiah left his own family in the hands of God, to
whose care he commended them in prayer, and then
set out on foot a journey of more than four hun-
dred miles. " But the Lord," he said," furnished
me with strength for the work I had entered upon.'
He passed through the States of New York, Penn-
sylvania, and Ohio. Then, crossing the Ohio
River, he entered the slave-land of Kentucky ; and
following the directions with which he had been
furnished, he made his way to the place he was
bound to, and opened a communication with those
whose deliverance he had come to promote. He
was an entire stranger to them, but he had brought
with him a token by which they would readily
742 JOSIAH ! THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
miderstand that he came from their escaped rela-
tive : and it was immediately recognised. But he
found that the parents were far advanced in age, so
that they could not bear the fatigue and privation
consequent upon such a journey as that which their
absent son proposed for them, and they must there-
fore make up their minds to finish their lives in the
land of bondage.
His sisters were the mothers of small children,
too numerous and feeble for such an undertaking.
The four brothers were young men and strong ; but
the thought of leaving father and mother and sisters
was too painful for them. The whole thing had
come upon them so suddenly, and they were so
apprehensive that the grief and agitation of the
relatives they would have to leave behind would
betray them, that they declined making the attempt
at that time. If Josiah would come back for them
the following year, they would prepare themselves,
and be ready to make an attempt to be free. To
this he consented, and then bade them all a loving
farewell.
Like Penn and Venables, in the time of Cromwell,
who, failing in their expedition against Haiti,
captured Jamaica, Josiah would not return home
empty-handed, although for the present this expedi-
tion had failed. He knew where there were some
whose relations had made good their escape to
CHAPTER XII. I43
Canada, and who were themselves panting to be free ;
only wanting a leader to encourage them, and direct
their movements. Travelling by night, and resting
in the woods by day, Josiah directed his footsteps
to the place he had heard of. He at length arrived
at his destination in Bourbon County, and soon
found out those whom he had come to seek. It
was a risky undertaking ; for had he been discovered
his life would scarcely have been safe ; and the very
least punishment he could expect would be the
fearful torture of the whip, and to be sold into the
horrible slavery of the South. But he trusted in
that kind Providence that had favoured him so
highly, and took care to keep himself from the
knowledge of all the slaves who were not to be
trusted.
Here he found no less than thirty slaves who at
once responded to and accepted his offer to be their
guide and helper, and who were resolved to free
themselves from the iron bondage under which
they had been groaning all their lives. Sometime
was occupied in making the needful- preparations ;
but at length, on a Saturday night, they started.
The slaves, especially those in the border states,
possessed among themselves the knowledge of a
certain composition which, put into their shoes,
had the effect of destroying the scent, so that the
dogs of the slave-hunters could not follow them
144 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
with the same certainty as they could those who
were not provided with it. Furnished with this,
they commenced their journey, and plunged into
the woods, under the benign light of the North Star,
which had guided so many to the land where to
tread the soil was to be free. " The agony of
parting," said Josiah, " can be better conceived than
described; as in their case husbands were leaving
their wives, mothers their children, and children
their parents. It may appear incredible at first
sight that they could make up their minds to do
this ; but when we consider that at any time they
were liable to be separated by being sold to what
are termed nigger-traders, and the almost certainty
that this fate awaited them in many cases sooner
or later, it is not surprising that all who were con-
cerned should agree to this voluntary parting."
The fugitives, keeping to the woods, or concealed
in the swamps by day, and travelling cautiously at
night, succeeded in getting across the Ohio River
in safety ; and after a fatiguing journey made their
way to Cincinnati. This being a principal depot
of "The Underground Railroad," they found here
shelter, concealment, and help. After renewing
their strength by a long rest, and being put on their
way a good long stage in waggons, they made for
Richmond, in the state of Indiana. Josiah knew
this to be a town settled by Quakers, and where
CHAPTER XII. 145
fugitives always received the help they required.
In due time, always concealed in the bush by day ,
and urging on their way under the favouring shelter
of the night, they arrived in safety at the Quaker
town. " There, " said Josiah, " we found friends
indeed, who kindly ministered to our wants, washed
and dressed our blistered feet, and helped us on our
way without loss of time." After a toilsome and
difficult journey of more than two weeks, the
fugitives reached Toledo, then a skeleton town on
the south-western shore of Lake Erie, since enlarged
into an important city. There kind friends procured
for them the means of reaching the friendly shores
of Canada, and the whole party arrived safely in
the land of the free. Having seen them settled in
some employment that would afford them the means
of more comfortable support than they had ever
known before, Josiah bade them farewell, leaving
them overwhelmed with gratitude to him, who,
under God, had been their benefactor and best friend.
It was a great happiness to him to be thus made
the instrument of freeing such a number of his
fellow creatures from the wrongs and oppressions
of slavery.
The following autumn Josiah prepared to fulfil
the promise he had made to restore the family of
the Lightwoods, or as many of them as he could, to
liberty. In the meanwhile he was working on his
L
I46 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
farm, assisted by his family. When the time
arrived, he started on his long journey to Kentucky.
" On my way," he said, " that strange occurrence
happened, called ■ the great meteoric shower.' The
heavens seemed breaking up into streaks of light
and falling stars. I reached Lancaster, in the
State of Ohio, about three o'clock in the morning,
and found the village aroused, the bells ringing, and
the people terribly excited, exclaiming, ' The day of
judgment is come ! ' I thought, ■ Perhaps it is so,'
but felt that I was in the right business, and doing
my Master's work, in attempting to relieve the
suffering ; so I walked calmly on through the
village, leaving the crowd of terrified people behind.
The stars continued to fall till the light of the sun
appeared."
When he arrived at a place called Portsmouth,
in Ohio, he was in some danger of being detected
and seized. There were a number of Kentuckians
in the place, who were quite ready to suspect any
coloured man if they saw anything unusual about
him. He had to wait some hours in Portsmouth
for the steamboat in which he intended to go down
the river. Had he been travelling in the opposite
direction, no doubt these men would have seized
him as a runaway ; but, although they looked upon
him with an evil eye, the fact that he was travelling
towards the slave-land, and not from it, somewhat
CHAPTER XII. 147
allayed their suspicions. To avoid being incon-
veniently questioned, Josiah procured some dried
leaves, put them in a cloth, and bound them round
his face nearly to the eyes, as if he were suffering
from neuralgic pains in his face and head. He
was accosted by several persons, who seemed
anxious to get some particulars from him as to who
he was, where he was going, and to whom he be-
longed. In answer to all their inquiries he merely
shook his head, and mumbled out some indistinct
sounds. By this artifice he avoided unpleasant
consequences until the boat arrived ; when he got
on board, and proceeded down the river, landing at
Maysville, Kentucky, in the night, when it was not
difficult to conceal himself from observation in
the bush.
It appeared to Josiah a wonderful providence
that one of the first persons he met, as he stepped
ashore, was James Lightwood, one of the party he
had come to assist, and brother to his friend in
Canada. This happy meeting greatly facilitated
his object, and rendered it easy for him to renew
his communications with the family without incur-
ring any risk. Their plan of escape was speedily
arranged ; and they agreed to put it in execution
on the following Saturday night. This night in
particular was chosen because, not having to labour
on the following day, they would not be missed until
L 2
I48 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
the time came for their appearance in the field on*
Monday morning. They hoped by that time to be
some eighty or a hundred miles a. way ; as they had
resolved to travel day and night at the beginning
of their journey, taking only the rest absolutely
necessary ; and so put as great a distance as pos-
sible between themselves and their pursuers, who
would soon be on their track.
For fear of being detected, the fugitives did not
bid either father or mother farewell, or entrust
them with the secret of their intended flight ; but
at the appointed time quietly stole away from the
plantation. It was not far to the river ; and,
arrived there, they took the liberty of appropriating
a skiff and oars, which they found lying close at
hand, and then with all speed made their way down
the river. It was not the shortest way, but it was
the surest ; as no dogs could follow their track in
the water. It was nearly seventy miles to Cincin-
nati ; but they hoped, by using extraordinary
exertion, to reach that city before daylight. This
hope was frustrated by their boat, which was old
and comparatively worthless, becoming suddenly
leaky; and it was with some difficulty they got
near to the shore before the crazy vessel filled and
sank. They soon found another boat, and took
possession of it; but having been thus hindered,
the day broke upon them when they were yet some
CHAPTER XII.
149
smites from Cincinnati; and they were compelled
to abandon the boat, and betake them to the dense
forest that lined the shore, for fear of being appre-
hended. The rest of the journey had therefore to
he accomplished on foot.
THE FOREST ON THE OHIO RIVER.
Suddenly, as they were carefully pursuing their
way through the forest, they came upon the Miami
river, which barred their further progress. They
could not reach the city without crossing it ; and
they were afraid to ask for the use of a boat, lest it
should lead to their detection and apprehension.
41 We went first up and then down the river," said
150 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
Josiah, " trying to find a convenient fording place,
but failed. I then said to my company, * Boys, let
us go up the river and try again.' We started, and
after going about a mile, we saw a cow coming
out of a wood and going to the river, as if she in-
tended to drink. Then said I, ' Boys, let us go
and see what that cow is about ; it may be that
she will tell us some news.' I said this jocularly,
in order to cheer them up. One of them replied, in
rather a peevish way, * O, that cow can't talk.' I
urged them again to come on, and they followed
me. The cow remained until we approached with-
in a rod or two of where she was standing ; she
then walked deliberately into the river, and went
straight across without swimming ; which caused
me to remark, * The Lord sent that cow to show us
where to cross the river !' This has always seemed
to me a very wonderful incident."
Although it was cold and snowing hard at the
time, the party was much heated by the exertions
they had made, and, saturated with perspiration,
some of them did not much like entering the icy
river in this state ; but it was a matter of life and
death with them to proceed. Josiah therefore ad-
vanced, and the others reluctantly followed. But
when they reached the middle of the river, one of
the young Lightwoods, the youngest of the party,
was seized with cramp and violent contraction of
CHAPTER XXI. 151
the limbs, and was in great danger of drowning.
The others rushed to his aid, rescued and bore him
safely to the opposite shore, where, by friction,
they recovered him so as to enable them to con-
tinue their journey. About midday they arrived
and found shelter in the city of Cincinnati, where
many benevolent Friends were ready to speed them
on their way.
Having no doubt that a diligent search would
be made for them there, as soon as their absence
should be discovered, at an early hour the follow-
ing morning they set off, and continued their
journey through mud, rain, and snow, towards
Canada. By daylight they kept as much as possible
to the woods, going round about considerably that
they might get among the Quakers, from whom
they were sure of obtaining all the help they needed.
During their struggle through the woods, the lad
who had taken a violent chill in crossing the Miami
river became alarmingly ill, and they were com-
pelled to carry him on their backs. Finding this
method of conveyance equally inconvenient to the
patient and themselves, they constructed a litter,
stripping themselves of all the clothing they could
possibly spare to render it as soft and easy as they
could make it. In this way, pushing through the
swamps and forests, they got at length into the
State of Indiana. But the sufferer continued to
152 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
get worse, and it appeared both to him and his
companions that death would soon release him
from his sufferings.
He begged to be left in some secluded spot to
die alone, as he feared that the delay to the party,
caused by their attendance upon him, would lead
to their capture. They refused this request for
some time ; but, at length, reluctantly came to the
conclusion that their own safety required them to
leave him, as there appeared to be no hope of his
recovery; and the poor fellow expressed his readi-
ness to meet the last struggle, trusting in Christ,
and in the full hope of eternal life. It was a sad part-
ing, and with difficulty they tore themselves away.
They had not gone far when they felt that they
could not thus leave a fellow-creature to perish, in
all probability by the wolves of the forest. They
accordingly retraced their steps, and found the poor
fellow apparently dying, but earnestly praying for
the mercy of God. They resumed their march
through the woods, bearing the sick one with them
as best they could. After proceeding in this way
for some time, they saw at some distance on the road
which was near to them, and going in the same
direction, a waggon moving slowly, as if it were
heavily laden. Josiah carefully approached it,
determined to ascertain if some aid could not be
obtained of the driver for their sick companion.
CHAPTER XII. 153
Leaving the rest of the party, Josiah made a con-
siderable detour, and, crossing a fence, came out
into the road at a turn where he could not be seen.
He then advanced to meet the waggon, appearing
as if he were travelling in an opposite direction to
that which the waggon was taking. When he
came up with the driver, Josiah bade him " Good
day." Great was the joy of Josiah when he
responded, " Where is thee going ? " for he knew at
once that he had fallen in with a Quaker, and was
sure that he should not ask in vain for help. He
well knew that when he met with one of this class
he met with a friend of the fugitive. Without any
hesitation he replied to the inquiry, " I am going
to Canada." An explanation followed, and Josiah
told the Friend about the party not far off in the
woods, and of the apparently dying youth. The
good man immediately stopped his horses, and
expressed his readiness to afford all the assistance
in his power.
They went together immediately to the place
where Josiah had left his companions ; and when
the Quaker saw the suffering youth he was moved
to tears. His waggon was laden with produce,
which he was conveying to a distant market for
sale ; but, without delay, he had the patient lifted
in, and turning his horses' heads in the direction
from which he had come, urged them on towards
154 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
his home. The kind and hearty reception accorded
to the whole party by the Quaker family overjoyed
their hearts. But no time was to be lost. They
were yet in danger of being followed and captured
by the slave-hunters, and they must proceed. It
was arranged that the sick youth should be left in
the kind hands of the Quaker family, to be nursed
into health ; and having rested for a night they
continued their journey, supplied by the bounty of
the Friends with a sack of biscuits and a joint of
meat, to sustain them on their way.
They now ventured to travel by the road, and
after a while fell in with a white man, who was
alone and travelling in the same direction. Entering
into conversation with him, they discovered that
he was from the South, where he had used a con-
siderable degree of violence in resisting the cruelty
of some slave-holders ; and he was now, for his
own safety, fleeing from the slave-land. This ren-
contre turned out to be of great service to the
party, who regarded it as a gracious interposition
of Providence in their behalf, as the wayfarer
became instrumental in saving them from the
hands of the slave-hunters, who were now fully on
their track.
They had arrived within forty miles of Lake
Erie, which lay between them and the land of pro-
mise to which they were bound. Anxious to press
CHAPTER XII. 155
with their feet the soil of freedom, they resolved to
travel all night, in order to reach it early. Just as
the day was breaking, they came to a small way-
side tavern close to the lake, where they rested,
and their white companion ordered breakfast for
six ; that being the number to which they were
reduced by leaving their companion behind with
the Quakers. While the meal was in course of
preparation, the whole party, overcome with the
fatigue of walking all night, fell asleep. "Just as.
our breakfast was ready," said Josiah, "whilst only
half awake, an impression came powerfully on my
mind that danger was nigh, and that we must at
once leave the house. I immediately roused my
companions, and told them how I felt, and urged
them to follow me, which they were very unwilling
to do. But having promised at the outset to sub-
mit to my authority and follow my guidance, they
at length complied, and we retired to a yard at the.
side of the house.
"A few minutes afterwards, while we were en-
gaged in washing ourselves with the snow, which,
was now a foot deep, we heard the trampling of
horses in the distance, and were at once warned of
the necessity of secreting ourselves, as the riders,
were not at all likely to be friends. We crept into
and lay beneath a pile of bushes which happened
to be lying close at hand, and which permitted us.
:i56 josjah: the maimed fugitive.
to have a view of the road, while we were unseen.
Presently several horsemen rode up hastily, coming
to a dead stop at the door of the house, and com-
rmenced to make inquiries, which clearly indicated
their object. My companions at a glance recog-
nised them as parties in pursuit of us, and whis-
pered their names to me. It was a critical moment,
;and our hearts beat almost audibly as we cowered
beneath the bush, and lay still as death. Had we
been in the house, we should inevitably have fallen
into the hands of our foes, who, we could perceive,
were all of them well armed,
" Our white friend advanced to the door as soon as
the horsemen rode up, requesting the landlord to stand
aside, and kept full possession of the doorway. He
was interrogated by the slave-hunters whether he
had seen any Negroes pass that way. He said he
thought he had. Their number was demanded ;
and the querists were told " About six," and that
they were proceeding, he thought, in the direction
of Detroit, and could only be some few miles ahead.
The pursuers immediately put spurs to their horses
and galloped off, and happily we saw them no more.
.1 cannot express the thankfulness we all felt for
;this wonderful providential deliverance. "
Providence still favoured them. As soon as they
thought it safe to venture into the house, they
entered, and disposed of the breakfast awaiting
CHAPTER XII. 157
them. By this time the landlord understood their'
true character, and the object they had in view..
He had no sympathy with slavery and slave-
hunters; and at once offered, on reasonable terms,
to put the whole party across the lake in a boat of
which he was the owner. They were devoutly
thankful for the offer, and promptly accepted it.
It was the one thing they wanted. The little bark
was soon afloat with her anxious freight: her
white sail lay to the wind, and the happy fugitives
were gliding rapidly across the smooth shining
water, with the land of liberty full in their view.
" Words," said Josiah, " cannot express the feelings
which my companions experienced as they neared-
the shore. Their hearts swelled with irrepressible
joy, as they stood upon the seats ready eagerly to
spring forward and touch the soil of the freeman..
And when they reached the shore, they danced,,
and shouted, and wept for joy, and fell down and
kissed the earth on which they first stepped, no*
longer the enslaved, but the free."
Under the tender nursing of the kind Quaker
family who had taken charge of him, the youth they
left behind soon regained his health, and rejoined
his relatives in Canada robust and vigorous. And
more than this, the owner of the Lightwoods, a Mr.
Frank Taylor, not very long after his fruitless pursuit
of his runaway slaves, became very ill, and for some
I58 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
time lay at the gate of death. During this visita-
tion his thoughts troubled him, especially concern-
ing the Lightwood family, and their separation from
■each other. He had failed to bring back the fugitives
to the relations they had been compelled to leave
behind, and to slavery ; and at length conscience
brought him to the conclusion that he ought not
to keep the husbands and wives, and parents and
children, apart for his own profit ; and he therefore
resolved to set free the remainder of the family.
Thus, in the good providence of God, they were all
brought together again, a truly happy family. They
settled in Canada, and were all well and prosperous
when these facts were brought to my knowledge.
These were not the only journeys to the slave-
land that Josiah undertook for the deliverance of
his suffering brethren there. Many times he in
this manner risked his own liberty and life for the
benefit of others ; and the blessing of many who
were ready to perish came upon him. " It is one
of the greatest sources of my happiness to know,"
remarked this devoted benefactor of his race, "that
by my numerous visits to the slave states, I have
been instrumental in delivering one hundred and
eighteen human beings out of the cruel and merciless
grasp of the slave-holder."* Is not this true
• Amongst those who fled from slavery, and found security
and prosperity in Canada, was the humble friend who, at the
CHAPTER XII. 159
heroism ? Here we have a man, constrained by the
love of God, and the love of his fellow-creatures, to
put himself and all that is dear to an intelligent
mind in jeopardy that he may relieve and save the
suffering, open the prison door to the captive, and
let the oppressed go free ! Will not such an one as
Josiah Henson appear, in the great day, a hero of
a truer and higher type than the Alexanders, the
Csesars, and the Napoleons, whose courage and
daring were exercised only to inflict an untold
amount of human suffering, and deluge the world
with blood ?
beginning of their flight, put Josiah and his family in a skiff
across the Ohio river.
Chapter xiii.
JOSIAH VISITS ENGLAND.
osiah was now settled with
his family around him at
Dawn, since better known
as Chatham, in Upper
Canada. He was the owner
of a prosperous farm, well
stocked with horses, cows,
sheep, and pigs, and sur-
rounded by thousands who,
like himself, had made their
escape from the slave-land.
He continued to exercise his
preaching gifts, directing many wanderers to Christ,
and diffusing the blessings of the Gospel amongst
a people who had been shut up in darkness, and
debased both in thought and habit under the
influence of slavery. To these he was a kind
benefactor, helping them to acquire and settle
comfortably on their own quiet homesteads, where
they could, by prudent care and industry, provide
a bountiful subsistence for their families, and pro-
THE SAW MILL.
M
CHAPTER XIII. 163
moting among them the institutions of civilization
and religion. By all the whites who knew him he
was greatly respected ; and amongst the coloured
race he was looked up to with a feeling akin tp
veneration.
Owing to some mismanagement on the part of
the trustees, the manual-labour school, which
Josiah had been chiefly instrumental in founding,
and the farm and mill belonging to it, had become
involved in debt. After much consideration and
discussion amongst those interested in the manage-
ment of the concern, in which Josiah took an active
part, it was determined to place the farm and saw-
mill under the separate care of a competent
manager, and the school and farm under the
direction of another person ; an arrangement which
immediately proved so far beneficial that the further
accumulation of pecuniary liability was prevented.
The school was placed in approved hands, and
Josiah himself, in conjunction with a well-tried
friend, undertook to conduct the business of the
mill, and to do the best he could to relieve the
concern from its pecuniary embarrassment.
Before he consented to assume any responsibility
of this kind, he was careful to secure the co-opera-
tion of his friend, Mr. Peter B. Smith. He had,
in his own mind, formed his plans, which however
he took care to keep to himself until all the necessary
M 2
164 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
arrangements were concluded. This was done irr
the year 1850, after the lapse of some months spent
in mutual counsel and debate. Then Josiah
revealed the secret project he had been pondering,,
very much to the astonishment of his compeers.
It was no less than to take a voyage to England,
and gain what help he could from those who took
an interest in the slave, and were friendly to
emancipation. The World's Great Industrial Fair,,
to be held in London, under the auspices of the
Queen and Prince Consort, was then a subject that
engrossed the attention and conversation of the
whole civilized world. Josiah heard and read of it,.
and possessed himself of all the information he
could gain as to the nature and object of the
Exhibition. There were upon the farm pertaining
to the manual-labour school a large number of fine
trees of black walnut, suited for ornamental use.
These Josiah thought might be turned to good
account on the European side of the Atlantic. He
resolved, therefore, to select some of the finest
specimens of this timber, have them carefully sawed
into boards at the mill, and exhibit them at the
World's Fair: which, he reasonably supposed,
might prepare the way for the sale of a considerable
quantity of the black walnut lumber in England
and on the European continent.
This scheme was approved and acted upon-
CHAPTER XIII. 165
Some magnificent trees, the growth of centuries*
were cut down and conveyed to the mill ; where,
under Josiah's own direction and oversight, they
were cut into thick boards, and carefully cleaned
and prepared for exportation. Both for their size
and exquisite grain they were samples of great
beauty ; and Josiah was proud to exhibit them, as
coming from the adopted home of the fugitive
slaves of America, who had found shelter and pro-
tection beneath the shadow of the British flag.
Josiah was well known in Boston to many of the
principal merchants of that emporium of commerce*
as well as to the ministers of religion of different
denominations ; and he found no difficulty in
obtaining from them letters of introduction to
leading men connected with the Anti- Slavery
Society in England. Also by ministers, judges,
and statesmen of Canada who approved of his
design, he was furnished with testimonials which
secured for him a cordial reception in England, and
4i prepared his way," as he said, " into the very best
society in the kingdom."
Josiah carried his boards to Boston, with a con-
siderable cargo of the same kind of lumber for the
Boston market. Through the interposition of
mercantile friends, he obtained permission to send
them on to England in the ship which was freighted
with a cargo of American products designed for
1 66 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
exhibition in the Crystal Palace. " They were
excellent specimens," said Josiah, u about seven
feet in length, and four feet in width, of superb
grain and texture. On their arrival in England, I
had them planed and perfectly polished in the
French style, so that they actually shone like a
mirror."
Their transport to England in the American
vessel led to an amusing episode, which we cannot
do better than relate in Josiah's own words.
" Because my boards happened to be carried over
in the American ship, the superintendent of the
American department, who was from Boston city,
(I think his name was Riddle,) insisted that my
lumber should be exhibited in the American
department, and thus add to its beauty. To this I
objected. I was a citizen from Canada, and my
boards were from Canada, and there was a portion
of the building appropriated to the exhibition of
Canadian products. I therefore contended that
my boards should be removed from the American
to the Canadian department. ' But,' said the
American, ' you cannot do it. All these things are
under my control. You can exhibit what belongs
to you, if you please, but not a single thing here
must be moved an inch without my consent.'
" This was rather a damper to me. I thought his
position very absurd, but to move him or my boards,
CHAPTER XIII. 167
seemed just then beyond my power. After think-
ing for a while over the matter, the thought occurred
to me, ' It is only right and proper that if this
Yankee will retain my property, the world should
know to whom it really belongs.' I accordingly
hired a painter to paint in large white letters on
the top of my boards : — * This is the product of the
industry of a fugitive slave from the United States,
whose residence is Dawn, Canada.' This was done
early in the morning, before he was in the habit of
putting in an appearance.
" In due time the American Superintendent
came round, and found me at my post. The gaze
of astonishment with which he read my inscription
was very laughable to witness. His face became
black as a thunder cloud. ' Look here, Sir,' said
he, ' what under heaven have you got up there ?'
* O, that is only a little information to let the people
know who I am, where I came from, and that the
boards are my property from Canada.' — * But, don't
you know better than that ? Do you suppose I am
going to have that insult up there ? ' A number of
English gentlemen began to gather around, chuck-
ling with half-suppressed delight, to see the wrath
of the Yankee. This only added fuel to the fire.
1 Well, Sir,' said he, ■ do you suppose I am
going to bring that stuff across the Atlantic for
nothing ?' — ' I have never asked you to bring it for
l68 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
nothing. I am ready to pay you any reasonable
charge, and have been from the beginning.' —
'Well, Sir, you may take it away, and carry it
where you please.' — ' O,' said I, ' I think, as you
wanted it so very much, to add to your own col-
lection, I will not disturb it. You can have it now ;
for I think it is very well just where it is.' — * No,
Sir,' he roared, ' you must take it away.' — ( I beg
your pardon, Sir,' said I, c when I wanted to re-
move it, you would not allow me to do so: and
now, so far as I am concerned, it shall remain.
That inscription which I have put at the top just
answers all my purpose, and everybody who looks
at it will understand what the articles are, and
where they came from.'
" A large crowd had by this time gathered around,
to whom I explained the cause of the altercation.
They enjoyed the fun very much, and so did I.
The result was that by the following day the boards
were removed to their proper place in the Canadian
department, without any expense to me : and no
bill was ever presented to me for the freight of the
lumber across the Atlantic.
" It is but fitting and proper that I should say,
my humble contribution to that immense Exhibition
received its due share of attention. Many inter-
esting conversations did I have with individuals of
that almost innumerable multitude from every
CHAPTER XIII. 169
nation under heaven. Perhaps my complexion at-
tracted attention ; but nearly all who passed paused
to look at me, and at themselves, as reflected in my
large black walnut mirrors. Amongst others the
Queen of England, Victoria, preceded by her guide,
and attended by a large cortege, paused to look
upon me and my property. I uncovered my head,
and saluted her Majesty as respectfully as I could ;
and she was pleased with perfect grace to return
my salutation. ' Is he indeed a fugitive slave ?' I
heard her Majesty inquire ; and the answer was ?
' He is indeed, and that is his work/ "
Josiah went to Canada and back again during
the progress of the World's Great Fair, leaving his
boards on exhibition ; and he was glad to under-
take the journey, as the time, after being there
awhile, wore heavily away. On his return, he
says : —
" There seemed to be no diminution of the crowd.
.Like the waters of the Mississippi, the channel was
still full, though the individuals were changed."
" But among all the exhibitors from every nation
In Europe, and from Asia, and America, and the
Isles of the Sea, there was not a single black
man but myself. There were Negroes there
from Africa, brought to be exhibited, but no Negro
exhibitors, except myself. Though my condition
was wonderfully changed from what it was in my
170 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
childhood and youth, yet it was somewhat sadden-
ing to reflect that my people were not more largely
represented there. The time will yet come, I trust,
when such a state of things will no longer exist.
" At the close of the Exhibition, on my return to*
Canada, I received from England a large quarta
bound volume, containing a full description of all
the objects presented at the Exhibition ; the names
of officers of all the Committees, juries, exhibitors,,
prizes, &c, &c. Amongst others I found my owa
name recorded : and there were in addition awarded
to me a bronze medal, a beautiful picture of the
Queen and the Royal Family, and several other ob-
jects of great interest. These things I greatly
prize."
Josiah's journey to Canada while the Exhibition
was in progress was caused by circumstances
which, for a season, gave him much uneasiness ;
and though ultimately productive of increased
good, were yet the occasion of no small degree of
sorrow and trouble. Some of the parties who had
been concerned in the manual-labour school, and
had got it by mismanagement so deeply embar-
rassed with debt, took umbrage when the care of
the institution was transferred to other hands, and
their connexion with it was brought to an end.
Against Josiah, who was the founder of the con-
cern, and who had undertaken the management of
CHAPTER XIII. 171
the saw-mill on behalf of the association, their
anger was particularly directed. They could not
assail him, with any advantage, on the spot, where
he was so well known and respected ; so they
sought in England to embarrass and thwart his
efforts on behalf of the institution. He had been cor-
dially received by such men as the Revs. Thomas
Binney, William Brock, James Sherman, Dr.
Burns, and others, and allowed to tell his own tale
in many of their pulpits, when he found himself
confronted with a printed circular, representing
him as an " impostor who was obtaining money
under false pretences ;" stating that " he could
exhibit no good credentials ; that whatever money
he might obtain would not be appropriated accord-
ing to the design of the donors ; and that he was
an artful, though skilful and eloquent, man, who
would deceive the public. ,,
Josiah had, fortunately, put the credentials with
which he had been furnished in Canada into the
hands of a committee of gentlemen in London,
who had been appointed for the purpose of receiv-
ing and appropriating such monies as should be
given for the relief of the fugitives in Upper
Canada. The committee comprised such names as
Gurney, Sturge, Lord Ashley, now Lord Shaftes-
bury, and many others well-known for their associa-
tion with every public enterprise of benevolence..
7J2 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
The gentlemen named satisfied themselves, by con-
fronting Josiah with his accuser, of the utter ground-
lessness of the accusations made against him.
But, for the entire satisfaction of the public mind,
the committee thought it advisable to send out an
agent to Canada to inspect the manual-labour
school and the farm, and to make a full inquiry
into the matter there : and they advised Josiah to
accompany him. John Scobell, of the Society of
Friends, was the person selected for this duty ; and
he and Josiah proceeded to Canada. The result
w r as entirely satisfactory to the committee, who paid
Josiah's expenses for the journey; and so aided
him in the object of his mission that the v/hole debt
on the manual-labour school was paid off, and the
concern placed on a much more prosperous footing
than it had ever been before. "And receiving
honourable testimonials from eminent persons in
England, I returned home to Canada,'' he said,
ft contented, happy, and thankful to God, who had
graciously directed my footsteps, and prospered
me in my way beyond my most sanguine expecta-
tions."
During his stay in England Josiah was intro-
duced to many persons who occupied an exalted
position in society. Amongst these was Earl Grey,
who made a proposal to him to go to India, and
.superintend there some efforts that were being
CHAPTER XIII. 173
made to introduce the cultivation of cotton on the
American plan. " He promised me," said Josiah,,
" an appointment to an official position with a good
salary. Had it not been for the warm interest I
felt in the Canadian enterprise, I should have
accepted it."
He cherished a lively and happy remembrance of
a day spent in the beautiful park of Lord John
Russell, then prime minister of England. It was a
party of Sunday-school teachers who were favoured
with this privilege, and Josiah was honoured with
an invitation to accompany them. " It was," he
said, " what in America we should call a pic-nic,,
with this difference, that instead of each teacher
providing his own cakes, and pies, and fruit, they
were furnished by men and women, who were
allowed to come on the grounds with every variety
of choice articles for sale." In the evening they
were sent for by the noble proprietor to visit the
elegant mansion belonging to the estate, where the
whole party were ushered into " a spacious dining-
hall, whose dimensions could not have been less
than a hundred feet by sixty; " and here they found
tables handsomely and luxuriously furnished, to
which they were made welcome. Josiah was
invited to take the head of the table. "I never
felt so highly honoured," said he. " A blessing was
invoked by singing two appropriate verses of a.
174 josiah: the maimed fugitive,
hymn, and then we set to, and did honour to the
noble earl's hospitality. After which, various
speeches were delivered by the Rev. William Brock,
the Hon. S. M. Peto, and others, and then we
returned home. Thus ended one of the pleasantest
days of my life."
Through Mr. Samuel Gurney, Josiah was
introduced to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and
of this interview which he had with the prelate he
gave the following interesting account : —
11 His Grace received me kindly at his palace, and
immediately entered into conversation with me
upon the condition of my people, and the plans I
had in view. He expressed the strongest interest
in me and the work to which I had devoted myself.
After about half an hour's conversation upon
these topics, he inquired, 'At what university,
Sir, did you graduate ? ' ' I graduated, your Grace,'
said I, in reply, 'at the University of Adversity.'
'The University of Adversity!' said he, looking
puzzled and astonished ; ■ where is that ? ' I saw his
surprise, and explained, ' It was my lot, your Grace,
:said I, 'to be born a slave, and to pass my boyhood
and all the earlier part of my life in slavery. I
never entered a school, never read the Bible in my
youth, and received all my training in adverse and
suffering circumstances. This, your Grace, is what
I meant by graduating in the University of Adver-
CHAPTER XIII. I75
sity.' ' I understand you, Sir,' said he ; ■ but is it
possible that you are not a scholar ? ■ * I am not,'
said I. ' But I should not have suspected from your
conversation that you are not a liberally educated
man. I have heard many Negroes talk, but have
not met with one that could use such good language
as you do. Will you tell me how you learned our
language so well ? ' I then explained to him, as
well as I could, the history of my early life, and
that from my youth it had always been my custom
to observe good speakers carefully, and to imitate
only those who seemed to speak most correctly and
euphoniously. * It is astonishing ! ' said the Arch-
bishop.
"'And is it possible,' he inquired, continuing
the conversation, * that you were brought up igno-
rant of religion ? How did you attain to the
knowledge of Christ ? ' I explained to him in reply,
how my poor ignorant slave mother had taught me
to say the Lord's Prayer, though I did not know at
that time what it really was to pray. ' And how
were you led to a better knowledge of the Saviour ? '
I answered that it was by hearing the Gospel
preached by a Methodist local preacher. He then
asked me to repeat the text, and to explain all the
circumstances. I did so, and told him of the first
sermon I heard preached from the text, * He, by
the grace of God, tasted death for every man,' and
176 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
described the impression it made upon my mind and
heart, and the results to which it led, giving a new
colour and current to the whole course of my life*
* A beautiful text was that,' said his Grace ; and so
affected was he by my simple narrative that he shed
tears freely while I was speaking.
" I had been told by my friend, Mr. Gurney, that
perhaps the Archbishop would give me an interview
of a quarter of an hour. On glancing at the clock
I found that we had been conversing an hour and a
half, and rose to take my departure. He followed
me to the door, and requested me, if I ever came
to England again, to call and see him. Shaking
hands affectionately with me, while the tears still
trembled in his eyes, he put into my hands five
bright new sovereigns, and bade me adieu. Surely,
thought I, as I took my departure, this is a warm-
hearted Christian man."
Chapter xiv.
CONCLUSION.
osiah had very sue
cessfully accomplished
the object of his visit
to England, and ob-
tained all the pecuni-
ary aid he needed, and
more than he had ventured to
hope for, when he received the
intelligence from Canada that his
beloved wife, who had been for
many years the partner of all his sorrows and joys,
was lying at the point of death, and earnestly
desired to see him once more on earth. The letter
conveying the afflictive news reached his hands on
the 3rd of September. On the 4th he was on his
way to Liverpool ; and on the 5th was on board the
"Canada" steamer, bound to Boston. On the
20th of the same month he arrived in his own
Canadian home, to the great comfort of his afflicted
family.
N "
178 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
Having heard nothing from them since he
received the first intimation of his wife's illness, it
was with fear and trembling that he approached
the house, dreading to hear that the faithful and
affectionate wife, who had travelled with him, sad,
weary, and footsore, on a journey of many hundreds
of miles when they fled together with their children
from the land of bondage, had passed away, and
that he should behold her no more on this side of
the grave. But this fear was removed when four
of his daughters, perceiving his approach, rushed
out to embrace and welcome him in the yard, and
there assured him that the loved one was yet
among the living. They were greatly delighted at
his return, which they had not looked for so soon ;
but they begged him not to go in " to see mother "
until they had prepared her to receive him ; thinking
that the excitement of his too sudden appearance
in the sick chamber would be too great for the
shattered nerves and wasted frame of the sufferer
to endure. Repairing to the room, they gradually
and carefully imparted the gladdening information,
and prepared her for the meeting for which she had
scarcely dared to hope.
When he went to her bedside, he says, " She
received me with the calmness and fortitude of the
true Christian, and even chided me for the strong
emotions of sorrow which I found it impossible to
CHAPTER XIV. 179
suppress. I found her peaceful and happy, perfectly
resigned to the will of God, and calmly awaiting
the hour when she should be summoned to her
glorious rest in the spirit-land."
The arrival of the husband whom she fondly
loved seemed to impart new vigour to the dying
wife. The change was so great as to inspire the
hope, for a brief season, that she might be restored
to health. It was not, however, so to be. Her
life, which had seemed so near its close, was pro-
longed for a few weeks ; during which Josiah had
the melancholy satisfaction of watching at the bed-'
side of the patient sufferer, and ministering such
consolation as he was able to impart when severe
pains tried her to the uttermost. At length the
summons came. She blessed her husband and
children, commending them to the ever-watchful
care of that Saviour who for many years had been
precious to her, and whose all-sufficient grace had
sustained her in the hour of trial. " After kissing
me and each one of the children," said Josiah, " she
passed from earth to heaven without a pang or a
groan, as gently as the falling to sleep of an infant
on its mother's breast."
Josiah's efforts to benefit his race, especially
that portion of them who had effected their escape
from bondage, and found their way to Canada, were
very successful. Large numbers of fugitives, when
n 2
l8o JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
they got clear of the slave states, settled in the
cities of the North. But there, especially after the
passing of the Fugitive Slave Bill, their condition
was unsafe ; as they were liable to be recognized
and seized, and sent back to the tender mercies of
their former owners. This was actually the case
with some, who were arrested and consigned again
to the slave-land. But it could not be the case with
those who extended their flight to Canad?. There y
secure under the protection of the British flag, the
prowling slave-hunter could not reach them, and
they could bid defiance to the whole slave-holding-
power. The knowledge of this fact spread very
widely among the slaves of the Southern States.
It became extensively known among these victims
of oppression that there, far away beneath the
North Star, not so far but they would be able to
reach it, lay a pleasant land, where all enjoyed the
sweets of liberty, and none could be held in bondage.
This knowledge gave wings to multitudes, and the
number who plunged into the swamps and forests
of the South, en route to this promised land, rapidly
increased. Some were pursued and brought back
again, and subjected to fearful tortures by their
exasperated owners. In some few instances, when
overtaken, they fought with and killed their pur-
suers, rather than be carried back again to
slavery. But a large number evaded all pursuit,
CHAPTER XIV, l8l
and made good their escape, and through terrible
privations and dangers gained a footing in the land
of the free. To these Josiah became a true bene-
factor ; not only preaching to them the everlasting
Gospel, and pointing them to the sinner's Friend, but
^nablingthem, with his wise counsels, and judicious
aid, to settle themselves and their families in such
positions as wo uld yield them comfort and plenty.
When, in 1 830, he fled to Canada, there were
but a few hundred fugitive slaves who had found
their way thither. In the year 1858, when I first
met with him in Boston, there were not less than
thirty-five thousand. He found them, on his arrival
there, scattered in all directions, and for the most
part miserably poor, subsisting not unfrequently on
the roots and herbs of the fieldis : but, owing chiefly
to his well-conceived plans and judicious advice,
many of them had become the owners of large and
valuable farms, and were bringing up their families
in great comfort; while few could be found in
destitution and want. " In 1830," said Josiah,
4i there were no schools among the Canada fugitives,
and no churches. We have now numerous churches,
and they are well filled from Sabbath to Sabbath
with attentive hearers. Our children attend the
Sabbath school, and are being trained, as we trust*
for heaven. We depend principally upon our farms
for subsistence ; but some of our number are good
182 josiah: the maimed fugitive.
mechanics — blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoe-
makers, tailors, &c, &c. We have found the rais-
ing of stock very profitable, and can show some of
the finest specimens of horseflesh that are to be
found on this continent. We find a ready market
for all our products. The soil is fertile, and yields
an abundant return for the husbandman's labour*
Although the season for cultivation is short, yet
ordinarily it is long enough to ripen corn (maize),
wheat, rye, oats, and the various productions of a
Northern New England or New York farm.
" Of late considerable attention has been paid to»
the cultivation of fruit, — apples, cherries, plums*
peaches, quinces, currants, gooseberries,, straw-
berries, &c. ; and I doubt not that in a few years
they will be very profitable. It is a mistaken idea
which many persons have, that vines and other
fruit trees cannot be cultivated to advantage in
Canada, on account of the severity of the climate*
I have raised as delicious sweet potatoes on my
farm as I ever saw in Kentucky, and as good a
crop of tobacco and hemp. The climate is good ;
the soil is rich : we are protected by just and im-
partial laws, so that free from molestation we can
sit secure and happy under ' our own vine and fig;
tree.' We are a temperate people ; and it is a
rare sight to behold an intoxicated coloured maa
amongst our settlements in Canada.''
CHAPTER XIV. 183.
When I met with Josiah at Boston, in the year
1858, he was sixty-nine years of age, but blithe
and active as a youth of sixteen. I shall not readily
forget the rollicking enjoyment with which he
related to me some of his experiences of Canadian
life. He was a happy Christian, always looking
upon the bright side of things, and always cherish-
ing a spirit of lively gratitude to God, whose boun-
tiful hand he recognised in all the mercies of his
chequered life. Amongst many incidents, some of a
more sombre and some of an amusing character, with
which he entertained me and others when we met
at the house of a mutual friend, was the manner in
which he disposed of a candidate for parliamentary
honours, who had failed to give satisfaction to his
coloured constituents by his conduct in the Colonial
Legislature.
Josiah possessed a large amount of influence
throughout the coloured population of Upper
Canada. Amongst these the possession of pro-
perty gave to a large number the right of voting at
the election of representatives in Parliament. Being:
regarded as the leading man of his own class, he
was waited upon by the individual in question,
who requested his vote and influence in an ap-
proaching election ; and used, as Josiah expressed
it, " abundance of soft sawder to gain his end."
11 No, Mr. ■ , I can't vote for you : and I
184 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
think it only fair to tell you that I intend to put
you out." "O no, you surely do not mean that !"
" Yes, I do mean it; and I tell you, you will not
go into Parliament again to represent this place."
41 But why? What have I done ? Tell me the rea-
son. " " Well, the reason is, that we don't like you,
and that is all about it." "But why? Tell me
what I have done to be treated so." " It don't
matter to talk about it : we don't like you, and we
don't approve your conduct : and, as far as we are
concerned, you will never go into Parliament again."
" But tell me what I have done that you don't ap-
prove, and perhaps I can explain." " Well, as you
will have me to speak out ; First, You are a
drunkard, and we do not approve of that. Second,
Youflippantly spoke against and disparaged my
people, who were not in a position to help or
answer for themselves ; and we do not approve of
that. Thirdly, You don't speak the truth. We do
not approve of that ; and therefore we will have no
more of you." " Well, you may do what you can ;
but I shall get in, in spite of you." " No, you won't.
We can keep you out; and we mean to do it. I'll
tell you what I shall do. I can get six good teams,
and I shall have them all at work to take the voters
to the poll ; and you will find that we are quite
strong enough to turn you out and put a better
man in." "And we kept our word," saidjosiah,
CHAPTER XIV. 185
rubbing his hands with delighted glee." When the
returns were made, he had lost his election by a majo -
rity of eight hundred in favour of his opponent, whom
we had brought forward ; and who was admonished
that he too would be turned out at the next elec-
tion if he did not do well. ,, "We exact no pledges,"
said Josiah to the new representative. " We send
you to Parliament free and unfettered. Act as a
man of conscience and truth, and we'll sustain you-
If you do otherwise, fouryears" (the term for which
members were elected) " will soon be gone, and then
we shall cut you adrift."
Soon after this election he started on a business,
journey, and was away for some weeks. " And
O, my dear Sir," he said, addressing me, "what
wonderful things the Lord did for me while I was
away, to be sure !" And the old man's countenance
became radiant with enjoyment, as he threw him-
self back to enjoy another hearty laugh. " When
I arrived at home, the first thing I learnt was, bless
the Lord for it ! that eight of my children had been
converted. As I approached the house, I heard
songs of praise proceeding from within; and when
I entered, I was greeted with the delightful intelli-
gence that a wonderful work of grace had been
going on in my household, and eight of my children,
over whom I had poured out many anxious prayers,,
had experienced that Divine change which had.
l86 JOSIAH : THE MAIMED FUGITIVE.
made them the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. How greatly did my heart rejoice at this
crowning mercy, which the Lord had vouchsafed to
His unworthy servant ! And with what gratitude
did I that night bow my knees before Him, who is
the Giver of every good and perfect gift ! The follow-
ing morning I went to look over my little farm ; and
the next thing I learned was that my favourite sow
had a litter of eight pigs, and they were all white.
Only think ! Eight pigs, and all of them white ! I
never was the owner of so many white pigs, though I
had many who were black like myself. I then went
to look over my sheep ; and there I found that the
Lord had given me sixteen lambs in my absence.
After that I learned that my cows had yielded me
four fine calves, and that our favourite mare had
the finest colt running at her heels that she had
ever borne. And last of all," and again he threw
himself back with an exuberant outburst of
laughter, " the Lord had given me four grand-
children. * Wife,' said I, when I returned to the
house, c I have only been away a few weeks ; what
is all this that you have been doing ? ' i Doing? '
she said, ' we have only been fulfilling the Divine
command, to multiply and replenish the earth.
The Lord has been dealing very bountifully with
us, and we ought to praise him for all His mercies.'
I agreed with her; and we bowed our knees
CHAPTER XIV. 187
together in thanksgiving to the Giver of all temporal
as well as spiritual blessings, who had delivered
us out of slavery, and poverty, and wretchedness,
and brought us into a large and wealthy place."
Josiah has lived to see all his fellow-bondsmen in
the Southern States freed from the yoke of slavery,
by a wonderful series of providences which are
highly instructive and admonitory. I have not met
him since 1858, but have frequently heard of him
as living in Upper Canada, and enjoying in a high
degree the respect and veneration of all around
him. He still labours to do good, though he has
reached the advanced age of eighty-four. A few
months ago, I saw in a Canadian newspaper an
advertisement relating to a convention called for
a religious purpose, in which Josiah was named as
one of the persons expected to take an active part
in the proceedings. .
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